Page 1 of 28 Harris v. Quinn, 134 S. Ct. 2618

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Page 1 of 28
134 S.Ct. 2618 (2014)
Pamela HARRIS et al., Petitioners
v.
Pat QUINN, Governor of Illinois, et al.
No. 11-681.
Supreme Court of United States.
Argued January 21, 2014.
Decided June 30, 2014.
2622 *2622 ALITO, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which ROBERTS, C.J., and SCALIA, KENNEDY, and
THOMAS, JJ., joined. KAGAN, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which GINSBURG, BREYER, and SOTOMAYOR, JJ.,
joined.
2623 *2623 William L. Messenger, Springfield, VA, for Petitioners.
Paul M. Smith, for Respondents.
Donald B. Verrilli, Jr., Solicitor General, for the United States as amicus curiae, by special leave of the Court,
supporting the Respondents.
Catherine E. Stetson, Neal Kumar Katyal, Dominic F. Perella, Mary Helen Wimberly, Hogan Lovells US LLP,
Washington, DC, William L. Messenger, Counsel of Record, c/o National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation,
Inc., Springfield, VA, for Petitioners.
Judith A. Scott, Walter Kamiat, Nicole G. Berner, Washington, DC, Robert E. Bloch, Dowd, Bloch & Bennett, Chicago,
IL, Stephen P. Berzon, Scott A. Kronland, Counsel of Record, Stacey M. Leyton, P. Casey Pitts, Matthew J. Murray,
Altshuler Berzon LLP, San Francisco, CA, for Respondent SEIU Healthcare Illinois & Indiana.
Joel D'alba, Margaret Angelucci, Chicago, IL, John M. West, Counsel of Record, Washington, DC, for Respondents
SEIU Local 73 and AFSCME Council 31.
Lisa Madigan, Attorney General of Illinois, Michael A. Scodro, Solicitor General, Jane Elinor Notz, Counsel of Record,
Deputy Solicitor General, Brett E. Legner, Nadine Jean Wichern, Eldad Malamuth, Clifford W. Berlow, Assistant
Attorneys General, Chicago, IL, for Respondent Pat Quinn.
Justice ALITO delivered the opinion of the Court.
This case presents the question whether the First Amendment permits a State to compel personal care providers to
subsidize speech on matters of public concern by a union that they do not wish to join or support. We hold that it does
not, and we therefore reverse the judgment of the Court of Appeals.
I
A
Millions of Americans, due to age, illness, or injury, are unable to live in their own homes without assistance and are
unable to afford the expense of in-home care. In order to prevent these individuals from having to enter a nursing
home or other facility, the federal Medicaid program funds state-run programs that provide in-home services to
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individuals whose conditions would otherwise require institutionalization. See 42 U.S.C. § 1396n(c)(1). A State that
adopts such a program receives federal funds to compensate persons who attend to the daily needs of individuals
needing in-home care. Ibid.; see also 42 CFR §§ 440.180, 441.300-441.310 (2013). Almost every State has
established such a program. See Dept. of Health and Human Services, Understanding Medicaid Home and
Community Services: A Primer (2010).
One of those States is Illinois, which has created the Illinois Department of Human Services Home Services Program,
known colloquially as the state "Rehabilitation Program." Ill. Comp. Stat., ch. 20, § 2405/3(f) (West 2012); 89 Ill.
Admin. Code § 676.10 (2007). "[D]esigned to prevent the unnecessary institutionalization of individuals who may
2624 instead be satisfactorily maintained at home at a lesser cost to the State," § 676.10(a), the Rehabilitation *2624
Program allows participants to hire a "personal assistant" who provides homecare services tailored to the individual's
needs. Many of these personal assistants are relatives of the person receiving care, and some of them provide care in
their own homes. See App. 16-18.
Illinois law establishes an employer-employee relationship between the person receiving the care and the person
providing it. The law states explicitly that the person receiving home care — the "customer" — "shall be the employer
of the [personal assistant]." 89 Ill. Admin. Code § 676.30(b) (emphasis added). A "personal assistant" is defined as "an
individual employed by the customer to provide ... varied services that have been approved by the customer's
physician," § 676.30(p) (emphasis added), and the law makes clear that Illinois "shall not have control or input in the
employment relationship between the customer and the personal assistants." § 676.10(c).
Other provisions of the law emphasize the customer's employer status. The customer "is responsible for controlling all
aspects of the employment relationship between the customer and the [personal assistant (or PA)], including, without
limitation, locating and hiring the PA, training the PA, directing, evaluating and otherwise supervising the work
performed by the personal assistant, imposing ... disciplinary action against the PA, and terminating the employment
relationship between the customer and the PA." § 676.30(b).[1] In general, the customer "has complete discretion in
which Personal Assistant he/she wishes to hire." § 684.20(b).
A customer also controls the contents of the document, the Service Plan, that lists the services that the customer will
receive. § 684.10(a). No Service Plan may take effect without the approval of both the customer and the customer's
physician. See § 684.10, 684.40, 684.50, 684.75. Service Plans are highly individualized. The Illinois State Labor
Relations Board noted in 1985 that "[t]here is no typical employment arrangement here, public or otherwise; rather,
there simply exists an arrangement whereby the state of Illinois pays individuals ... to work under the direction and
control of private third parties." Illinois Dept. of Central Management Serv., No. S-RC-115, 2 PERI ¶ 2007, p. VIII-30,
(1985), superseded, 2003 Ill. Laws p. 1929.
While customers exercise predominant control over their employment relationship with personal assistants, the State,
subsidized by the federal Medicaid program, pays the personal assistants' salaries. The amount paid varies depending
on the services provided, but as a general matter, it "corresponds to the amount the State would expect to pay for the
nursing care component of institutionalization if the individual chose institutionalization." 89 Ill. Admin. Code § 679.50
(a).
Other than providing compensation, the State's role is comparatively small. The State sets some basic threshold
2625 qualifications for employment. See *2625 §§ 686.10(h)(1)-(10).[2] (For example, a personal assistant must have a
Social Security number, must possess basic communication skills, and must complete an employment agreement with
the customer. §§ 686.10, 686.20, 686.40.) The State mandates an annual performance review by the customer, helps
the customer conduct that review, and mediates disagreements between customers and their personal assistants. §
686.30. The State suggests certain duties that personal assistants should assume, such as performing "household
tasks," "shopping," providing "personal care," performing "incidental health care tasks," and "monitoring to ensure the
health and safety of the customer." § 686.20. In addition, a state employee must "identify the appropriate level of
service provider" "based on the customer's approval of the initial Service Plan," § 684.20(a) (emphasis added), and
must sign each customer's Service Plan. § 684.10.
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B
Section 6 of the Illinois Public Labor Relations Act (PLRA) authorizes state employees to join labor unions and to
bargain collectively on the terms and conditions of employment. Ill. Comp. Stat., ch. 5, § 315/6(a). This law applies to
"[e]mployees of the State and any political subdivision of the State," subject to certain exceptions, and it provides for a
union to be recognized if it is "designated by the [Public Labor Relations] Board as the representative of the majority of
public employees in an appropriate unit...." §§ 315/6 (a), (c).
The PLRA contains an agency-fee provision, i.e., a provision under which members of a bargaining unit who do not
wish to join the union are nevertheless required to pay a fee to the union. See Workers v. Mobil Oil Corp., 426 U.S.
407, 409, n. 1, 96 S.Ct. 2140, 48 L.Ed.2d 736 (1976). Labeled a "fair share" provision, this section of the PLRA
provides: "When a collective bargaining agreement is entered into with an exclusive representative, it may include in
the agreement a provision requiring employees covered by the agreement who are not members of the organization to
pay their proportionate share of the costs of the collective-bargaining process, contract administration and pursuing
matters affecting wages, hours and conditions of employment." § 315/6(e). This payment is "deducted by the employer
from the earnings of the nonmember employees and paid to the employee organization." Ibid.
In the 1980's, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) petitioned the Illinois Labor Relations Board for
permission to represent personal assistants employed by customers in the Rehabilitation Program, but the board
rebuffed this effort. Illinois Dept. of Central Management Servs., supra, at VIII-30. The board concluded that "it is
2626 clear ... that [Illinois] does not exercise the type of control over the petitioned-for employees necessary *2626 to be
considered, in the collective bargaining context envisioned by the [PLRA], their `employer' or, at least, their sole
employer." Ibid.
In March 2003, however, Illinois' newly elected Governor, Rod Blagojevich, circumvented this decision by issuing
Executive Order 2003-08. See App. to Pet. for Cert. 45a-47a. The order noted the Illinois Labor Relations Board
decision but nevertheless called for state recognition of a union as the personal assistants' exclusive representative for
the purpose of collective bargaining with the State. This was necessary, Gov. Blagojevich declared, so that the State
could "receive feedback from the personal assistants in order to effectively and efficiently deliver home services." Id.,
at 46a. Without such representation, the Governor proclaimed, personal assistants "cannot effectively voice their
concerns about the organization of the Home Services program, their role in the program, or the terms and conditions
of their employment under the Program." Ibid.
Several months later, the Illinois Legislature codified that executive order by amending the PLRA. Pub. Act no. 93-204,
§ 5, 2003 Ill. Laws p. 1930. While acknowledging "the right of the persons receiving services ... to hire and fire
personal assistants or supervise them," the Act declared personal assistants to be "public employees" of the State of
Illinois — but "[s]olely for the purposes of coverage under the Illinois Public Labor Relations Act." Ill. Comp. Stat., ch.
20, § 2405/3(f). The statute emphasized that personal assistants are not state employees for any other purpose,
"including but not limited to, purposes of vicarious liability in tort and purposes of statutory retirement or health
insurance benefits." Ibid.
Following a vote, SEIU Healthcare Illinois & Indiana (SEIU-HII) was designated as the personal assistants' exclusive
representative for purposes of collective bargaining. See App. 23. The union and the State subsequently entered into
collective-bargaining agreements that require all personal assistants who are not union members to pay a "fair share"
of the union dues. Id., at 24-25. These payments are deducted directly from the personal assistants' Medicaid
payments. Ibid. The record in this case shows that each year, personal assistants in Illinois pay SEIU-HII more than
$3.6 million in fees. Id., at 25.
C
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Three of the petitioners in the case now before us — Theresa Riffey, Susan Watts, and Stephanie Yencer-Price — are
personal assistants under the Rehabilitation Program. They all provide in-home services to family members or other
individuals suffering from disabilities.[3] Susan Watts, for example, serves as personal assistant for her daughter, who
requires constant care due to quadriplegic cerebral palsy and other conditions. See App. 18.
In 2010, these petitioners filed a putative class action on behalf of all Rehabilitation Program personal assistants in the
United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. See 656 F.3d 692, 696 (C.A.7 2011). Their complaint,
which named the Governor and the union as defendants, sought an injunction against enforcement of the fair-share
provision and a declaration that the Illinois PLRA violates the First Amendment insofar as it requires personal
assistants to pay a fee to a union that they do not wish to support. Ibid.
2627 *2627 The District Court dismissed their claims with prejudice, and the Seventh Circuit affirmed in relevant part,
concluding that the case was controlled by this Court's decision in Abood v. Detroit Bd. of Ed. 431 U.S. 209, 97 S.Ct.
1782, 52 L.Ed.2d 261 (1977). 656 F.3d, at 698. The Seventh Circuit held that Illinois and the customers who receive
in-home care are "joint employers" of the personal assistants, and the court stated that it had "no difficulty concluding
that the State employs personal assistants within the meaning of Abood." Ibid.
Petitioners sought certiorari. Their petition pointed out that other States were following Illinois' lead by enacting laws or
issuing executive orders that deem personal assistants to be state employees for the purpose of unionization and the
assessment of fair-share fees. See App. to Pet. for Cert. 22a. Petitioners also noted that Illinois has enacted a law that
deems "individual maintenance home health workers" — a category that includes registered nurses, licensed practical
nurses, and certain therapists who work in private homes — to be "public employees" for similar purposes. Ill. Pub. Act
no. 97-1158, 2012 Ill. Laws p. 7823.
In light of the important First Amendment questions these laws raise, we granted certiorari. 570 U.S. ___, 134 S.Ct.
48, 186 L.Ed.2d 962 (2013).
II
In upholding the constitutionality of the Illinois law, the Seventh Circuit relied on this Court's decision in Abood supra,
which held that state employees who choose not to join a public-sector union may nevertheless be compelled to pay
an agency fee to support union work that is related to the collective-bargaining process. Id., at 235-236, 97 S.Ct. 1782.
Two Terms ago, in Knox v. Service Employees, 567 U.S. ___, 132 S.Ct. 2277, 183 L.Ed.2d 281 (2012), we pointed
out that Abood is "something of an anomaly." Id., at ___, 132 S.Ct., at 2290. "`The primary purpose' of permitting
unions to collect fees from nonmembers," we noted, "is `to prevent nonmembers from free-riding on the union's efforts,
sharing the employment benefits obtained by the union's collective bargaining without sharing the costs incurred.'" Id.,
at ___, 132 S.Ct., at 2289 (quoting Davenport v. Washington Ed. Assn., 551 U.S. 177, 181, 127 S.Ct. 2372, 168
L.Ed.2d 71 (2007)). But "[s]uch free-rider arguments ... are generally insufficient to overcome First Amendment
objections." 567 U.S., at ___, 132 S.Ct., at 2289.
For this reason, Abood stands out, but the State of Illinois now asks us to sanction what amounts to a very significant
expansion of Abood — so that it applies, not just to full-fledged public employees, but also to others who are deemed
to be public employees solely for the purpose of unionization and the collection of an agency fee. Faced with this
argument, we begin by examining the path that led to this Court's decision in Abood.
A
The starting point was Railway Employes' v. Hanson, 351 U.S. 225, 76 S.Ct. 714, 100 L.Ed. 1112 (1956), a case in
which the First Amendment was barely mentioned. The dispute in Hanson resulted from an amendment to the Railway
Labor Act (RLA). Id., at 229, 232, 76 S.Ct. 714. As originally enacted in 1926, the Act did not permit a collectivebargaining agreement to require employees to join or make any payments to a union. See Machinists v. Street, 367
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U.S. 740, 750, 81 S.Ct. 1784, 6 L.Ed.2d 1141 (1961). At that time and for many years thereafter, there was "a strong
2628 and long-standing tradition of voluntary *2628 unionism on the part of the standard rail unions." Ibid.
Eventually, however, the view of the unions changed. See id., at 760-761, 81 S.Ct. 1784. The RLA's framework for
resolving labor disputes "is more complex than that of any other industry," id., at 755, 81 S.Ct. 1784, and amendments
enacted in 1934 increased the financial burden on unions by creating the 36-member National Railroad Adjustment
Board, one-half of whose members were appointed and paid by the unions. Id., at 759-760, 81 S.Ct. 1784. In seeking
authorization to enter into union-shop agreements, i.e., agreements requiring all employees to join a union and thus
pay union dues, see Oil Workers, 426 U.S., at 409, n. 1, 96 S.Ct. 2140, the unions' principal argument "was based on
their role in this regulatory framework." Street, 367 U.S., at 761, 81 S.Ct. 1784. A union spokesman argued that the
financial burdens resulting from the Act's unique and complex scheme justified union-shop provisions in order to
provide the unions with needed dues. Ibid.
These arguments were successful, and the Act was amended in 1951 to permit a railroad and a union to enter into an
agreement containing a union-shop provision. This amendment brought the Act into conflict with the laws of States that
guaranteed the "right to work" and thereby outlawed the union shop. Nebraska, the setting of Hanson, was one such
State. 351 U.S., at 228, 76 S.Ct. 714.
In Hanson, the Union Pacific Railroad Company and its unionized workers entered into a collective-bargaining
agreement that contained a provision requiring employees, "as a condition of their continued employment," to join and
remain members of the union. Id., at 227, 76 S.Ct. 714. Employees who did not want to join the union brought suit in
state court, contending that the union-shop provision violated a provision of the Nebraska Constitution banning
adverse employment actions "`because of refusal to join or affiliate with a labor organization.'" Id., at 228, 76 S.Ct. 714
(quoting Neb. Const., Art. XV, § 13). The employer countered that the RLA trumped the Nebraska provision, but the
Nebraska courts agreed with the employees and struck down the union-shop agreement.
When the case reached this Court, the primary issue was whether the provision of the RLA that authorized union-shop
agreements was "germane to the exercise of power under the Commerce Clause." 351 U.S., at 234-235, 76 S.Ct. 714.
In an opinion by Justice Douglas, the Court held that this provision represented a permissible regulation of commerce.
The Court reasoned that the challenged provision "`stabilized labor-management relations'" and thus furthered
"`industrial peace.'" Id., at 233-234, 76 S.Ct. 714.
The employees also raised what amounted to a facial constitutional challenge to the same provision of the RLA. The
employees claimed that a "union shop agreement forces men into ideological and political associations which violate
their right to freedom of conscience, freedom of association, and freedom of thought protected by the Bill of Rights."
Id., at 236, 76 S.Ct. 714. But because the lawsuit had been filed shortly after the collective-bargaining agreement was
approved, the record contained no evidence that the union had actually engaged in political or ideological activities.[4]
2629 *2629 The Hanson Court dismissed the objecting employees' First Amendment argument with a single sentence. The
Court wrote: "On the present record, there is no more an infringement or impairment of First Amendment rights than
there would be in the case of a lawyer who by state law is required to be a member of an integrated bar." Id., at 238,
76 S.Ct. 714.
This explanation was remarkable for two reasons. First, the Court had never previously held that compulsory
membership in and the payment of dues to an integrated bar was constitutional, and the constitutionality of such a
requirement was hardly a foregone conclusion. Indeed, that issue did not reach the Court until five years later, and it
produced a plurality opinion and four separate writings. See Lathrop v. Donohue, 367 U.S. 820, 81 S.Ct. 1826, 6
L.Ed.2d 1191 (1961) (plurality opinion).[5]
Second, in his Lathrop dissent, Justice Douglas, the author of Hanson, came to the conclusion that the First
Amendment did not permit compulsory membership in an integrated bar. See 367 U.S., at 878-880, 81 S.Ct. 1826.
The analogy drawn in Hanson, he wrote, fails. "Once we approve this measure," he warned, "we sanction a device
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where men and women in almost any profession or calling can be at least partially regimented behind causes which
they oppose." 367 U.S., at 884, 81 S.Ct. 1826. He continued:
"I look on the Hanson case as a narrow exception to be closely confined. Unless we so treat it, we
practically give carte blanche to any legislature to put at least professional people into goose-stepping
brigades. Those brigades are not compatible with the First Amendment." Id., at 884-885, 81 S.Ct. 1826
(footnote omitted).
The First Amendment analysis in Hanson was thin, and the Court's resulting First Amendment holding was narrow. As
the Court later noted, "all that was held in Hanson was that [the RLA] was constitutional in its bare authorization of
union-shop contracts requiring workers to give `financial support' to unions legally authorized to act as their collective
bargaining agents." Street, 367 U.S., at 749, 81 S.Ct. 1784 (emphasis added). The Court did not suggest that
"industrial peace" could justify a law that "forces men into ideological and political associations which violate their right
to freedom of conscience, freedom of association, and freedom of thought," or a law that forces a person to "conform
to [a union's] ideology." Hanson, supra, at 236-237, 76 S.Ct. 714. The RLA did not compel such results, and the record
in Hanson did not show that this had occurred.
B
Five years later, in Street, supra, the Court considered another case in which workers objected to a union shop.
Employees of the Southern Railway System raised a First Amendment challenge, contending that a substantial part of
the money that they were required to pay to the union was used to support political candidates and causes with which
they disagreed. A Georgia court enjoined the enforcement of the union-shop provision and entered judgment for the
dissenting employees in the amount of the payments that they had been forced to make to the union. The Georgia
Supreme Court affirmed. Id., at 742-745, 81 S.Ct. 1784.
2630 *2630 Reviewing the State Supreme Court's decision, this Court recognized that the case presented constitutional
questions "of the utmost gravity," id., at 749, 81 S.Ct. 1784, but the Court found it unnecessary to reach those
questions. Instead, the Court construed the RLA "as not vesting the unions with unlimited power to spend exacted
money." Id., at 768, 81 S.Ct. 1784. Specifically, the Court held, the Act "is to be construed to deny the unions, over an
employee's objection, the power to use his exacted funds to support political causes which he opposes." Id., at 768769, 81 S.Ct. 1784.
Having construed the RLA to contain this restriction, the Street Court then went on to discuss the remedies available
for employees who objected to the use of union funds for political causes. The Court suggested two: The dissenting
employees could be given a refund of the portion of their dues spent by the union for political or ideological purposes,
or they could be given a refund of the portion spent on those political purposes that they had advised the union they
disapproved.[6] Id., at 774-775, 81 S.Ct. 1784.
Justice Black, writing in dissent, objected to the Court's suggested remedies, and he accurately predicted that the
Court's approach would lead to serious practical problems. Id., at 796-797, 81 S.Ct. 1784. That approach, he wrote,
while "very lucrative to special masters, accountants and lawyers," would do little for "the individual workers whose
First Amendment freedoms have been flagrantly violated." Id., at 796, 81 S.Ct. 1784. He concluded:
"Unions composed of a voluntary membership, like all other voluntary groups, should be free in this
country to fight in the public forum to advance their own causes, to promote their choice of candidates
and parties and to work for the doctrines or the laws they favor. But to the extent that Government
steps in to force people to help espouse the particular causes of a group, that group — whether
composed of railroad workers or lawyers — loses its status as a voluntary group." Ibid.
Justice Frankfurter, joined by Justice Harlan, also dissented, arguing that the Court's remedy was conceptually flawed
because a union may further the objectives of members by political means. See id., at 813-815, 81 S.Ct. 1784. He
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noted, for example, that reports from the AFL-CIO Executive Council "emphasize that labor's participation in urging
legislation and candidacies is a major one." Id., at 813, 81 S.Ct. 1784. In light of "the detailed list of national and
international problems on which the AFL-CIO speaks," he opined, "it seems rather naive" to believe "that economic
and political concerns are separable." Id., at 814, 81 S.Ct. 1784.
C
This brings us to Abood, which, unlike Hanson and Street, involved a public-sector collective-bargaining agreement.
The Detroit Federation of Teachers served "as the exclusive representative of teachers employed by the Detroit Board
of Education." 431 U.S., at 211-212, 97 S.Ct. 1782. The collective-bargaining agreement between the union and the
board contained an agency-shop clause requiring every teacher to "pay the Union a service charge equal to the
regular dues required of Union members." Id., at 212, 97 S.Ct. 1782. A putative class of teachers sued to invalidate
2631 this clause. Asserting that *2631 "they opposed collective bargaining in the public sector," the plaintiffs argued that "`a
substantial part'" of their dues would be used to fund union "`activities and programs which are economic, political,
professional, scientific and religious in nature of which Plaintiffs do not approve, and in which they will have no voice.'"
Id., at 212-213, 97 S.Ct. 1782.
This Court treated the First Amendment issue as largely settled by Hanson and Street. 431 U.S., at 217, 223, 97 S.Ct.
1782. The Court acknowledged that Street was resolved as a matter of statutory construction without reaching any
constitutional issues, 431 U.S., at 220, 97 S.Ct. 1782, and the Court recognized that forced membership and forced
contributions impinge on free speech and associational rights, id., at 223, 97 S.Ct. 1782. But the Court dismissed the
objecting teachers' constitutional arguments with this observation: "[T]he judgment clearly made in Hanson and Street
is that such interference as exists is constitutionally justified by the legislative assessment of the important contribution
of the union shop to the system of labor relations established by Congress." Id., at 222, 97 S.Ct. 1782.
The Abood Court understood Hanson and Street to have upheld union-shop agreements in the private sector based
on two primary considerations: the desirability of "labor peace" and the problem of "`free riders[hip].'" 431 U.S., at 220222, 224, 97 S.Ct. 1782.
The Court thought that agency-shop provisions promote labor peace because the Court saw a close link between such
provisions and the "principle of exclusive union representation." Id., at 220, 97 S.Ct. 1782. This principle, the Court
explained, "prevents inter-union rivalries from creating dissension within the work force and eliminating the advantages
to the employee of collectivization." Id., at 220-221, 97 S.Ct. 1782. In addition, the Court noted, the "designation of a
single representative avoids the confusion that would result from attempting to enforce two or more agreements
specifying different terms and conditions of employment." Id., at 220, 97 S.Ct. 1782. And the Court pointed out that
exclusive representation "frees the employer from the possibility of facing conflicting demands from different unions,
and permits the employer and a single union to reach agreements and settlements that are not subject to attack from
rival labor organizations." Id., at 221, 97 S.Ct. 1782.
Turning to the problem of free ridership, Abood noted that a union must "`fairly and equitably ... represent all
employees'" regardless of union membership, and the Court wrote as follows: The "union-shop arrangement has been
thought to distribute fairly the cost of these activities among those who benefit, and it counteracts the incentive that
employees might otherwise have to become `free riders' to refuse to contribute to the union while obtaining benefits of
union representation." Id., at 221-222, 97 S.Ct. 1782.
The plaintiffs in Abood argued that Hanson and Street should not be given much weight because they did not arise in
the public sector, and the Court acknowledged that public-sector bargaining is different from private-sector bargaining
in some notable respects. 431 U.S., at 227-228, 97 S.Ct. 1782. For example, although public and private employers
both desire to keep costs down, the Court recognized that a public employer "lacks an important discipline against
agreeing to increases in labor costs that in a market system would require price increases." Id., at 228, 97 S.Ct. 1782.
The Court also noted that "decisionmaking by a public employer is above all a political process" undertaken by people
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2632 "ultimately responsible to the *2632 electorate." Ibid. Thus, whether a public employer accedes to a union's demands,
the Court wrote, "will depend upon a blend of political ingredients," thereby giving public employees "more influence in
the decisionmaking process that is possessed by employees similarly organized in the private sector." Ibid. But despite
these acknowledged differences between private-and public-sector bargaining, the Court treated Hanson and Street
as essentially controlling.
Instead of drawing a line between the private and public sectors, the Abood Court drew a line between, on the one
hand, a union's expenditures for "collective-bargaining, contract administration, and grievance-adjustment purposes,"
431 U.S., at 232, 97 S.Ct. 1782, and, on the other, expenditures for political or ideological purposes. Id., at 236, 97
S.Ct. 1782.
D
The Abood Court's analysis is questionable on several grounds. Some of these were noted or apparent at or before
the time of the decision, but several have become more evident and troubling in the years since then.
The Abood Court seriously erred in treating Hanson and Street as having all but decided the constitutionality of
compulsory payments to a public-sector union. As we have explained, Street was not a constitutional decision at all,
and Hanson disposed of the critical question in a single, unsupported sentence that its author essentially abandoned a
few years later. Surely a First Amendment issue of this importance deserved better treatment.
The Abood Court fundamentally misunderstood the holding in Hanson, which was really quite narrow. As the Court
made clear in Street, "all that was held in Hanson was that [the RLA] was constitutional in its bare authorization of
union-shop contracts requiring workers to give `financial support' to unions legally authorized to act as their collective
bargaining agents." 367 U.S., at 749, 81 S.Ct. 1784 (emphasis added). In Abood, on the other hand, the State of
Michigan did more than simply authorize the imposition of an agency fee. A state instrumentality, the Detroit Board of
Education, actually imposed that fee. This presented a very different question.
Abood failed to appreciate the difference between the core union speech involuntarily subsidized by dissenting publicsector employees and the core union speech involuntarily funded by their counterparts in the private sector. In the
public sector, core issues such as wages, pensions, and benefits are important political issues, but that is generally not
so in the private sector. In the years since Abood, as state and local expenditures on employee wages and benefits
have mushroomed, the importance of the difference between bargaining in the public and private sectors has been
driven home.[7]
Abood failed to appreciate the conceptual difficulty of distinguishing in public-sector cases between union expenditures
that are made for collective-bargaining purposes and those that are made to achieve political ends. In the private
sector, the line is easier to see. Collective bargaining concerns the union's dealings with the employer; political
2633 advocacy and lobbying are directed at the government. But in the public sector, both collective-bargaining *2633 and
political advocacy and lobbying are directed at the government.
Abood does not seem to have anticipated the magnitude of the practical administrative problems that would result in
attempting to classify public-sector union expenditures as either "chargeable" (in Abood's terms, expenditures for
"collective-bargaining, contract administration, and grievance-adjustment purposes," id., at 232, 97 S.Ct. 1782) or
nonchargeable (i.e., expenditures for political or ideological purposes, id., at 236, 97 S.Ct. 1782). In the years since
Abood, the Court has struggled repeatedly with this issue. See Ellis v. Railway Clerks, 466 U.S. 435, 104 S.Ct. 1883,
80 L.Ed.2d 428 (1984); Teachers v. Hudson, 475 U.S. 292, 106 S.Ct. 1066, 89 L.Ed.2d 232 (1986); Lehnert v. Ferris
Faculty Assn., 500 U.S. 507, 111 S.Ct. 1950, 114 L.Ed.2d 572 (1991); Locke v. Karass, 555 U.S. 207, 129 S.Ct. 798,
172 L.Ed.2d 552 (2009). In Lehnert, the Court held that "chargeable activities must (1) be `germane' to collectivebargaining activity; (2) be justified by the government's vital policy interest in labor peace and avoiding `free riders';
and (3) not significantly add to the burdening of free speech that is inherent in the allowance of an agency or union
shop." 500 U.S., at 519, 111 S.Ct. 1950. But as noted in Justice SCALIA's dissent in that case, "each one of the three
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`prongs' of the test involves a substantial judgment call (What is `germane'? What is `justified'? What is a `significant'
additional burden)." Id., at 551, 111 S.Ct. 1950 (opinion concurring in judgment in part and dissenting in part).
Abood likewise did not foresee the practical problems that would face objecting nonmembers. Employees who suspect
that a union has improperly put certain expenses in the "germane" category must bear a heavy burden if they wish to
challenge the union's actions. "[T]he onus is on the employees to come up with the resources to mount the legal
challenge in a timely fashion," Knox, 567 U.S., at ___, 132 S.Ct., at 2294 (citing Lehnert, supra, at 513, 111 S.Ct.
1950), and litigating such cases is expensive. Because of the open-ended nature of the Lehnert test, classifying
particular categories of expenses may not be straightforward. See Jibson v. Michigan Ed. Assn.-NEA, 30 F.3d 723,
730 (C.A.6 1994). And although Hudson required that a union's books be audited, auditors do not themselves review
the correctness of a union's categorization. See Knox, supra, at ___, 132 S.Ct., at 2294 (citing Andrews v. Education
Assn. of Cheshire, 829 F.2d 335, 340 (C.A.2 1987)). See also American Federation of Television and Recording
Artists, Portland Local, 327 N.L.R.B. 474, 477 (1999) ("It is settled that determinations concerning whether particular
expenditures are chargeable are legal determinations which are outside the expertise of the auditor. Thus, as we have
stated, the function of the auditor is to verify that the expenditures that the union claims it made were in fact made for
the purposes claimed, not to pass on the correctness of the union's allocation of expenditures to the chargeable and
nonchargeable categories"); California Saw and Knife Works, 320 N.L.R.B. 224, 241 (1995) ("We first agree [that the
company at issue] did not violate its duty of fair representation by failing to use an independent auditor to determine
the allocation of chargeable and nonchargeable expenditures"); Price v. International Union, United Auto., Aerospace
& Agricultural Implement Workers of Am., 927 F.2d 88, 93-94 (C.A.2 1991) ("Hudson requires only that the usual
function of an auditor be performed, i.e., to determine that the expenses claimed were in fact made. That function does
2634 not require that the auditor make a legal decision as to the appropriateness of the allocation of expenses *2634 to the
chargeable and non-chargeable categories").
Finally, a critical pillar of the Abood Court's analysis rests on an unsupported empirical assumption, namely, that the
principle of exclusive representation in the public sector is dependent on a union or agency shop. As we will explain,
see infra, at 2640-2641, this assumption is unwarranted.
III
A
Despite all this, the State of Illinois now asks us to approve a very substantial expansion of Abood's reach. Abood
involved full-fledged public employees, but in this case, the status of the personal assistants is much different. The
Illinois Legislature has taken pains to specify that personal assistants are public employees for one purpose only:
collective bargaining. For all other purposes, Illinois regards the personal assistants as privatesector employees. This
approach has important practical consequences.
For one thing, the State's authority with respect to these two groups is vastly different. In the case of full-fledged public
employees, the State establishes all of the duties imposed on each employee, as well as all of the qualifications
needed for each position. The State vets applicants and chooses the employees to be hired. The State provides or
arranges for whatever training is needed, and it supervises and evaluates the employees' job performance and
imposes corrective measures if appropriate. If a state employee's performance is deficient, the State may discharge
the employee in accordance with whatever procedures are required by law.
With respect to the personal assistants involved in this case, the picture is entirely changed. The job duties of personal
assistants are specified in their individualized Service Plans, which must be approved by the customer and the
customer's physician. 89 Ill. Admin. Code § 684.10. Customers have complete discretion to hire any personal assistant
who meets the meager basic qualifications that the State prescribes in § 686.10. See § 676.30(b) (the customer "is
responsible for controlling all aspects of the employment relationship between the customer and the [personal
assistant], including, without limitation, locating and hiring the [personal assistant]" (emphasis added)); § 684.20(b)
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("complete discretion in which Personal Assistant [the customer] wishes to hire" subject to baseline eligibility
requirements).
Customers supervise their personal assistants on a daily basis, and no provision of the Illinois statute or implementing
regulations gives the State the right to enter the home in which the personal assistant is employed for the purpose of
checking on the personal assistant's job performance. Cf. § 676.20(b) (customer controls "without limitation ...
supervising the work performed by the [personal assistant], imposing... disciplinary action against the [personal
assistant]"). And while state law mandates an annual review of each personal assistant's work, that evaluation is also
controlled by the customer. §§ 686.10(k), 686.30. A state counselor is assigned to assist the customer in performing
the review but has no power to override the customer's evaluation. See ibid. Nor do the regulations empower the State
to discharge a personal assistant for substandard performance. See n. 1, supra. Discharge, like hiring, is entirely in the
hands of the customer. See § 676.30.
Consistent with this scheme, under which personal assistants are almost entirely answerable to the customers and not
2635 to the State, Illinois withholds from personal assistants most of the rights and *2635 benefits enjoyed by full-fledged
state employees. As we have noted already, state law explicitly excludes personal assistants from statutory retirement
and health insurance benefits. Ill. Comp. Stat., ch. 20, § 2405/3(f). It also excludes personal assistants from group life
insurance and certain other employee benefits provided under the State Employees Group Insurance Act of 1971. Ibid.
("Personal assistants shall not be covered by the State Employees Group Insurance Act of 1971"). And the State
"does not provide paid vacation, holiday, or sick leave" to personal assistants. 89 Ill. Admin. Code § 686.10(h)(7).
Personal assistants also appear to be ineligible for a host of benefits under a variety of other state laws, including the
State Employee Vacation Time Act (see Ill. Stat., ch. 5, § 360/1); the State Employee Health Savings Account Law
(see Ill. Stat., ch. 5, § 377/10-1); the State Employee Job Sharing Act (see Ill. Stat., ch. 5, § 380/0.01); the State
Employee Indemnification Act (see Ill. Stat., ch. 5, § 350/2); and the Sick Leave Bank Act. See Ill. Stat., ch. 5, § 400/1.
Personal assistants are apparently not entitled to the protection that the Illinois Whistleblower Act provides for fullfledged state employees. See Ill. Stat., ch. 740, § 174/1. And it likewise appears that personal assistants are shut out
of many other state employee programs and benefits. The Illinois Department of Central Management Services lists
many such programs and benefits, including a deferred compensation program, full worker's compensation privileges,
[8]
behavioral health programs, a program that allows state employees to retain health insurance for a time after
leaving state employment, a commuter savings program, dental and vision programs, and a flexible spending program.
[9]
All of these programs and benefits appear to fall within the provision of the Rehabilitation Program declaring that
personal assistants are not state employees for "any purposes" other than collective bargaining. See Ill. Comp. Stat.,
ch. 20, § 2405/3(f).
Just as the State denies personal assistants most of the rights and benefits enjoyed by full-fledged state workers, the
State does not assume responsibility for actions taken by personal assistants during the course of their employment.
The governing statute explicitly disclaims "vicarious liability in tort." Ibid. So if a personal assistant steals from a
customer, neglects a customer, or abuses a customer, the State washes its hands.
Illinois deems personal assistants to be state employees for one purpose only, collective bargaining,[10] but the scope
of bargaining that may be conducted on their behalf is sharply limited. Under the governing Illinois statute, collective
bargaining can occur only for "terms and conditions of employment that are within the State's control." Ill. Comp. Stat.,
ch. 20, § 2405/3(f). That is not very much.
2636 *2636 As an illustration, consider the subjects of mandatory bargaining under federal and state labor law that are out
of bounds when it comes to personal assistants. Under federal law, mandatory-subjects include the days of the week
and the hours of the day during which an employee must work,[11] lunch breaks,[12] holidays,[13] vacations,[14]
termination of employment,[15] and changes in job duties.[16] Illinois law similarly makes subject to mandatory collectivebargaining decisions concerning the "hours and terms and conditions of employment." Belvidere v. Illinois State Labor
Relations Bd., 181 Ill.2d 191, 201, 229 Ill.Dec. 522, 692 N.E.2d 295, 301 (1998); see also, e.g., Aurora Sergeants
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Assn., 24 PERI ¶ 25 (2008) (holding that days of the week worked by police officers is subject to mandatory collective
bargaining). But under the Rehabilitation Program, all these topics are governed by the Service Plan, with respect to
which the union has no role. See § 676.30(b) (the customer "is responsible for controlling all aspects of the
employment relationship between the customer and the PA, including, without limitation, locating and hiring the PA,
training the PA, directing, evaluating, and otherwise supervising the work performed by the PA, imposing ...
disciplinary action against the PA, and terminating the employment relationship between the customer and the PA"); §
684.50 (the Service Plan must specify "the frequency with which the specific tasks are to be provided" and "the
number of hours each task is to be provided per month").
B
1
The unusual status of personal assistants has important implications for present purposes. Abood's rationale,
whatever its strengths and weaknesses, is based on the assumption that the union possesses the full scope of powers
and duties generally available under American labor law. Under the Illinois scheme now before us, however, the
union's powers and duties are sharply circumscribed, and as a result, even the best argument for the "extraordinary
power" that Abood allows a union to wield, see Davenport, 551 U.S., at 184, 127 S.Ct. 2372, is a poor fit.
In our post-Abood cases involving public-sector agency-fee issues, Abood has been a given, and our task has been to
attempt to understand its rationale and to apply it in a way that is consistent with that rationale. In that vein, Abood's
reasoning has been described as follows. The mere fact that nonunion members benefit from union speech is not
enough to justify an agency fee because "private speech often furthers the interests of nonspeakers, and that does not
alone empower the state to compel the speech to be paid for." Lehnert, 500 U.S., at 556, 111 S.Ct. 1950 (opinion of
SCALIA, J.). What justifies the agency fee, the argument goes, is the fact that the State compels the union to promote
and protect the interests of nonmembers. Ibid. Specifically, the union must not discriminate between members and
2637 nonmembers in "negotiating and administering a collective-bargaining agreement *2637 and representing the interests
of employees in settling disputes and processing grievances." Ibid. This means that the union "cannot, for example,
negotiate particularly high wage increases for its members in exchange for accepting no increases for others." Ibid.
And it has the duty to provide equal and effective representation for nonmembers in grievance proceedings, see Ill.
Comp. Stat. Ann., ch. 5, §§ 315/6, 315/8, an undertaking that can be very involved. See, e.g., SEIU: Member
Resources, available at www.seiu.or/a/members/disputes-and-grievances-rights-procedures-and-best-practices.php
(detailing the steps involved in adjusting grievances).
This argument has little force in the situation now before us. Illinois law specifies that personal assistants "shall be paid
at the hourly rate set by law," see 89 Ill. Admin. Code § 686.40(a), and therefore the union cannot be in the position of
having to sacrifice higher pay for its members in order to protect the nonmembers whom it is obligated to represent.
And as for the adjustment of grievances, the union's authority and responsibilities are narrow, as we have seen. The
union has no authority with respect to any grievances that a personal assistant may have with a customer, and the
customer has virtually complete control over a personal assistant's work.
The union's limited authority in this area has important practical implications. Suppose, for example that a customer
fires a personal assistant because the customer wrongly believes that the assistant stole a fork. Or suppose that a
personal assistant is discharged because the assistant shows no interest in the customer's favorite daytime soaps.
Can the union file a grievance on behalf of the assistant? The answer is no.
It is true that Illinois law requires a collective-bargaining agreement to "contain a grievance resolution procedure which
shall apply to all employees in the bargaining unit," Ill. Comp. Stat., ch. 5, § 315/8, but in the situation here, this
procedure appears to relate solely to any grievance that a personal assistant may have with the State,[17] not with the
customer for whom the personal assistant works.[18]
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2638
*2638
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2
Because of Abood's questionable foundations, and because the personal assistants are quite different from fullfledged public employees, we refuse to extend Abood to the new situation now before us.[19] Abood itself has clear
boundaries; it applies to public employees. Extending those boundaries to encompass partial-public employees, quasipublic employees, or simply private employees would invite problems. Consider a continuum, ranging, on the one
hand, from full-fledged state employees to, on the other hand, individuals who follow a common calling and benefit
from advocacy or lobbying conducted by a group to which they do not belong and pay no dues. A State may not force
every person who benefits from this group's efforts to make payments to the group. See Lehnert, 500 U.S., at 556, 111
S.Ct. 1950 (opinion of SCALIA, J.). But what if regulation of this group is increased? What if the Federal Government
or a State begins to provide or increases subsidies in this area? At what point, short of the point at which the
individuals in question become full-fledged state employees, should Abood apply?
If respondents' and the dissent's views were adopted, a host of workers who receive payments from a governmental
entity for some sort of service would be candidates for inclusion within Abood's reach. Medicare-funded home health
employees may be one such group. See Brief for Petitioners 51; 42 U.S.C. § 1395x(m); 42 CFR § 424.22(a). The
same goes for adult foster care providers in Oregon (Ore.Rev. Stat. § 443.733 (2013)) and Washington (Wash.
Rev.Code § 41.56.029 (2012)) and certain workers under the federal Child Care and Development Fund programs (45
CFR § 98.2).
If we allowed Abood to be extended to those who are not full-fledged public employees, it would be hard to see just
where to draw the line,[20] and we therefore confine Abood's reach to full-fledged state employees.[21]
2639
*2639
IV
A
Because Abood is not controlling, we must analyze the constitutionality of the payments compelled by Illinois law
under generally applicable First Amendment standards. As we explained in Knox, "[t]he government may not prohibit
the dissemination of ideas that it disfavors, nor compel the endorsement of ideas that it approves." 567 U.S., at ___,
132 S.Ct., at 2288; see also, e.g., R.A.V. v. St. Paul, 505 U.S. 377, 382, 112 S.Ct. 2538, 120 L.Ed.2d 305 (1992);
Riley v. National Federation of Blind of N.C., 487 U.S. 781, 797, 108 S.Ct. 2667, 101 L.Ed.2d 669 (1988) West Virginia
Bd. of Ed. v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624, 63 S.Ct. 1178, 87 L.Ed. 1628 (1943); Wooley v. Maynard, 430 U.S. 705, 713715, 97 S.Ct. 1428, 51 L.Ed.2d 752 (1977). And "compelled funding of the speech of other private speakers or groups"
presents the same dangers as compelled speech. Knox, supra, at ___, 132 S.Ct., at 2288. As a result, we explained in
Knox that an agency-fee provision imposes "a `significant impingement on First Amendment rights,'" and this cannot
be tolerated unless it passes "exacting First Amendment scrutiny." 567 U.S., at ___, 132 S.Ct., at 2289.
In Knox, we considered specific features of an agency-shop agreement — allowing a union to impose upon
nonmembers a special assessment or dues increase without providing notice and without obtaining the nonmembers'
affirmative agreement — and we held that these features could not even satisfy the standard employed in United
States v. United Foods, Inc., 533 U.S. 405, 415, 121 S.Ct. 2334, 150 L.Ed.2d 438 (2001), where we struck down a
provision that compelled the subsidization of commercial speech. We did not suggest, how ever, that the compelled
speech in Knox was like the commercial speech in United Foods. On the contrary, we observed that "[t]he subject of
the speech at issue [in United Foods] — promoting the sale of mushrooms — was not one that is likely to stir the
passions of many, but the mundane commercial nature of that speech only highlights the importance of our analysis
and our holding." Knox, supra, at ___, 132 S.Ct., at 2289.
While the features of the agency-fee provision in Knox could not meet even the commercial-speech standard
employed in United Foods, it is apparent that the speech compelled in this case is not commercial speech. Our
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precedents define commercial speech as "speech that does no more than propose a commercial transaction," United
Foods, supra, at 409, 121 S.Ct. 2334 (citing Virginia Bd. of Pharmacy v. Virginia Citizens Consumer Council, Inc., 425
U.S. 748, 761-762, 96 S.Ct. 1817, 48 L.Ed.2d 346 (1976)), and the union speech in question in this case does much
more than that. As a consequence, it is arguable that the United Foods standard is too permissive.
B
For present purposes, however, no fine parsing of levels of First Amendment scrutiny is needed because the agencyfee provision here cannot satisfy even the test used in Knox. Specifically, this provision does not serve a "`compelling
state interes[t] ... that cannot be achieved through means significantly less restrictive of associational freedoms.'"
Knox, supra, at ___, 132 S.Ct., at 2289 (quoting Roberts v. United States Jaycees, 468 U.S. 609, 623, 104 S.Ct. 3244,
2640 82 L.Ed.2d 462 (1984)). Respondents contend that the agency-fee *2640 provision in this case furthers several
important interests, but none is sufficient.
1
Focusing on the benefits of the union's status as the exclusive bargaining agent for all employees in the unit,
respondents argue that the agency-fee provision promotes "labor peace," but their argument largely misses the point.
Petitioners do not contend that they have a First Amendment right to form a rival union. Nor do they challenge the
authority of the SEIU-HII to serve as the exclusive representative of all the personal assistants in bargaining with the
State. All they seek is the right not to be forced to contribute to the union, with which they broadly disagree.
A union's status as exclusive bargaining agent and the right to collect an agency fee from non-members are not
inextricably linked. For example, employees in some federal agencies may choose a union to serve as the exclusive
bargaining agent for the unit, but no employee is required to join the union or to pay any union fee. Under federal law,
in agencies in which unionization is permitted, "[e]ach employee shall have the right to form, join, or assist any labor
organization, or to refrain from any such activity, freely and without fear of penalty or reprisal, and each employee shall
be protected in the exercise of such right." 5 U.S.C. § 7102 (emphasis added).[22]
Moreover, even if the agency fee provision at issue here were tied to the union's status as exclusive bargaining
agents, features of the Illinois scheme would still undermine the argument that the agency fee plays an important role
in maintaining labor peace. For one thing, any threat to labor peace is diminished because the personal assistants do
not work together in a common state facility but instead spend all their time in private homes, either the customers' or
their own. Cf. Perry Ed. Assn. v. Perry Local Educators' Assn., 460 U.S. 37, 51, 103 S.Ct. 948, 74 L.Ed.2d 794 (1983)
("[E]xclusion of the rival union may reasonably be considered a means of insuring labor-peace within the schools").
Federal labor law reflects the fact that the organization of household workers like the personal assistants does not
further the interest of labor peace. "[A]ny individual employed ... in the domestic service of any family or person at his
home" is excluded from coverage under the National Labor Relations Act. See 29 U.S.C. § 152(3).
The union's very restricted role under the Illinois law is also significant. Since the union is largely limited to petitioning
the State for greater pay and benefits, the specter of conflicting demands by personal assistants is lessened. And of
course, State officials must deal on a daily basis with conflicting pleas for funding in many contexts.
2
Respondents also maintain that the agency-fee provision promotes the welfare of personal assistants and thus
contributes to the success of the Rehabilitation Program. As a result of unionization, they claim, the wages and
2641 benefits of personal assistants have been substantially improved;[23] orientation and training programs, *2641
background checks, and a program to deal with lost and erroneous paychecks have been instituted;[24] and a
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procedure was established to resolve grievances arising under the collective-bargaining agreement (but apparently not
grievances relating to a Service Plan or actions taken by a customer).[25]
The thrust of these arguments is that the union has been an effective advocate for personal assistants in the State of
Illinois, and we will assume that this is correct. But in order to pass exacting scrutiny, more must be shown. The
agency-fee provision cannot be sustained unless the cited benefits for personal assistants could not have been
achieved if the union had been required to depend for funding on the dues paid by those personal assistants who
chose to join. No such showing has been made.
In claiming that the agency fee was needed to bring about the cited improvements, the State is in a curious position.
The State is not like the closed-fisted employer that is bent on minimizing employee wages and benefits and that
yields only grudgingly under intense union pressure. As Governor Blagojevich put it in the executive order that first
created the Illinois program, the State took the initiative because it was eager for "feedback" regarding the needs and
views of the personal assistants. See App. to Pet. for Cert. 46. Thereafter, a majority of the personal assistants voted
to unionize. When they did so, they must have realized that this would require the payment of union dues, and
therefore it may be presumed that a high percentage of these personal assistants became union members and are
willingly paying union dues. Why are these dues insufficient to enable the union to provide "feedback" to a State that is
highly receptive to suggestions for increased wages and other improvements? A host of organizations advocate on
behalf of the interests of persons falling within an occupational group, and many of these groups are quite successful
even though they are dependent on voluntary contributions. Respondents' showing falls far short of what the First
Amendment demands.
V
Respondents and their supporting amici make two additional arguments that must be addressed.
A
First, respondents and the Solicitor General urge us to apply a balancing test derived from Pickering v. Board of Ed. of
Township High School Dist. 205, Will Cty., 391 U.S. 563, 88 S.Ct. 1731, 20 L.Ed.2d 811 (1968). See Brief for
Respondent Quinn 25-26; Brief for SEIU-HII 35-36; Brief for United States as Amicus Curiae 11. And they claim that
under the Pickering analysis, the Illinois scheme must be sustained. This argument represents an effort to find a new
justification for the decision in Abood, because neither in that case nor in any subsequent related case have we seen
Abood as based on Pickering balancing.[26]
2642 *2642 In any event, this effort to recast Abood falls short. To begin, the Pickering test is inapplicable because with
respect to the personal assistants, the State is not acting in a traditional employer role.[27] But even if it were,
application of Pickering would not sustain the agency-fee provision.
Pickering and later cases in the same line concern the constitutionality of restrictions on speech by public employees.
Under those cases, employee speech is unprotected if it is not on a matter of public concern (or is pursuant to an
employee's job duties), but speech on matters of public concern may be restricted only if "the interest of the state, as
an employer, in promoting the efficiency of the public services it performs through its employees" outweighs "the
interests of the [employee], as a citizen, in commenting upon matters of public concern." 391 U.S., at 568, 88 S.Ct.
1731. See also Borough of Duryea v. Guarnieri, 564 U.S. ___, 131 S.Ct. 2488, 180 L.Ed.2d 408 (2011); Garcetti v.
Ceballos, 547 U.S. 410, 126 S.Ct. 1951, 164 L.Ed.2d 689 (2006); Waters v. Churchill, 511 U.S. 661, 674, 114 S.Ct.
1878, 128 L.Ed.2d 686 (1994) (plurality opinion); Connick v. Myers, 461 U.S. 138, 103 S.Ct. 1684, 75 L.Ed.2d 708
(1983).
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Attempting to fit Abood into the Pickering framework, the United States contends that union speech that is germane to
collective bargaining does not address matters of public concern and, as a result, is not protected. Taking up this
argument, the dissent insists that the speech at issue here is not a matter of public concern. According to the dissent,
this is "the prosaic stuff of collective bargaining." Post, at 2655. Does it have any effect on the public? The dissent's
answer is: "not terribly much." Post, at 2655. As the dissent sees it, speech about such funding is not qualitatively
different from the complaints of a small-town police chief regarding such matters as the denial of $338 in overtime pay
or directives concerning the use of police vehicles and smoking in the police station. See post, at 2655; Borough of
Duryea, supra, at 2655, 131 S.Ct., at 2492-2493.[28]
This argument flies in the face of reality. In this case, for example, the category of union speech that is germane to
collective bargaining unquestionably includes speech in favor of increased wages and benefits for personal assistants.
Increased wages and benefits for personal assistants would almost certainly mean increased expenditures under the
2643 Medicaid program, and it is impossible to argue that the level of *2643 Medicaid funding (or, for that matter, state
spending for employee benefits in general) is not a matter of great public concern.
In recent years, Medicaid expenditures have represented nearly a quarter of all state expenditures. See National
Association of State Budget Officers, Summary: Fall 2013 Fiscal Survey of States (Dec. 10, 2013), online at
http://www.nasbo.org. "Medicaid has steadily eaten up a growing share of state budgets."[29] In fiscal year 2014, "[t]
hirty-five states increased spending for Medicaid for a net increase of $6.8 billion." Ibid. Accordingly, speech by a
powerful union that relates to the subject of Medicaid funding cannot be equated with the sort of speech that our cases
have treated as concerning matters of only private concern. See, e.g., San Diego v. Roe, 543 U.S. 77, 125 S.Ct. 521,
160 L.Ed.2d 410 (2004) (per curiam); Connick, supra, at 148, 103 S.Ct. 1684 (speech that "reflect[ed] one employee's
dissatisfaction with a transfer and an attempt to turn that displeasure into a cause célèbre" (emphasis added)).
For this reason, if Pickering were to be applied, it would be necessary to proceed to the next step of the analysis
prescribed in that case, and this would require an assessment of both the degree to which the agency-fee provision
promotes the efficiency of the Rehabilitation Program and the degree to which that provision interferes with the First
Amendment interests of those personal assistants who do not wish to support the union.
We need not discuss this analysis at length because it is covered by what we have already said. Agency-fee
provisions unquestionably impose a heavy burden on the First Amendment interests of objecting employees. See
Knox, 567 U.S., at ___, 132 S.Ct., at 2294 (citing Lehnert, 500 U.S., at 513, 111 S.Ct. 1950; Jibson v. Michigan Ed.
Assn., 30 F.3d 723, 730 (C.A.6 1994)). And on the other side of the balance, the arguments on which the United
States relies — relating to the promotion of labor peace and the problem of free riders — have already been
discussed. Thus, even if the permissibility of the agency-shop provision in the collective-bargaining agreement now at
issue were analyzed under Pickering, that provision could not be upheld.
B
Respondents contend, finally, that a refusal to extend Abood to cover the situation presented in this case will call into
question our decisions in Keller v. State Bar of Cal., 496 U.S. 1, 110 S.Ct. 2228, 110 L.Ed.2d 1 (1990), and Board of
Regents of Univ. of Wis. System v. Southworth, 529 U.S. 217, 120 S.Ct. 1346, 146 L.Ed.2d 193 (2000). Respondents
are mistaken.
In Keller, we considered the constitutionality of a rule applicable to all members of an "integrated" bar, i.e., "an
association of attorneys in which membership and dues are required as a condition of practicing law." 496 U.S., at 5,
110 S.Ct. 2228. We held that members of this bar could not be required to pay the portion of bar dues used for political
or ideological purposes but that they could be required to pay the portion of the dues used for activities connected with
proposing ethical codes and disciplining bar members. Id., at 14, 110 S.Ct. 2228.
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This decision fits comfortably within the framework applied in the present case. Licensed attorneys are subject to
detailed ethics rules, and the bar rule requiring the payment of dues was part of this regulatory scheme. The portion of
2644 *2644 the rule that we upheld served the "State's interest in regulating the legal profession and improving the quality of
legal services." Ibid. States also have a strong interest in allocating to the members of the bar, rather than the general
public, the expense of ensuring that attorneys adhere to ethical practices. Thus, our decision in this case is wholly
consistent with our holding in Keller.
Contrary to respondents' submission, the same is true with respect to Southworth, supra. In that case, we upheld the
constitutionality of a university-imposed mandatory student activities fee that was used in part to support a wide array
of student groups that engaged in expressive activity. The mandatory fee was challenged by students who objected to
some of the expression that the fee was used to subsidize, but we rejected that challenge, and our holding is entirely
consistent with our decision in this case.
Public universities have a compelling interest in promoting student expression in a manner that is viewpoint neutral.
See Rosenberger v. Rector and Visitors of Univ. of Va., 515 U.S. 819, 115 S.Ct. 2510, 132 L.Ed.2d 700 (1995). This
may be done by providing funding for a broad array of student groups. If the groups funded are truly diverse, many
students are likely to disagree with things that are said by some groups. And if every student were entitled to a partial
exemption from the fee requirement so that no portion of the student's fee went to support a group that the student did
not wish to support, the administrative problems would likely be insuperable. Our decision today thus does not
undermine Southworth.
***
For all these reasons, we refuse to extend Abood in the manner that Illinois seeks. If we accepted Illinois' argument,
we would approve an unprecedented violation of the bedrock principle that, except perhaps in the rarest of
circumstances, no person in this country may be compelled to subsidize speech by a third party that he or she does
not wish to support. The First Amendment prohibits the collection of an agency fee from personal assistants in the
Rehabilitation Program who do not want to join or support the union.
The judgment of the Court of Appeals is reversed in part and affirmed in part,[30] and the case is remanded for further
proceedings consistent with this opinion.
It is so ordered.
Justice KAGAN, with whom Justice GINSBURG, Justice BREYER, and Justice SOTOMAYOR join, dissenting.
2645 Abood v. Detroit Bd. of Ed., 431 U.S. 209, 97 S.Ct. 1782, 52 L.Ed.2d 261 (1977), *2645 answers the question
presented in this case. Abood held that a government entity may, consistently with the First Amendment, require public
employees to pay a fair share of the cost that a union incurs negotiating on their behalf for better terms of employment.
That is exactly what Illinois did in entering into collective bargaining agreements with the Service Employees
International Union Healthcare (SEIU) which included fair-share provisions. Contrary to the Court's decision, those
agreements fall squarely within Abood's holding. Here, Illinois employs, jointly with individuals suffering from
disabilities, the in-home care providers whom the SEIU represents. Illinois establishes, following negotiations with the
union, the most important terms of their employment, including wages, benefits, and basic qualifications. And Illinois's
interests in imposing fair-share fees apply no less to those caregivers than to other state workers. The petitioners'
challenge should therefore fail.
And that result would fully comport with our decisions applying the First Amendment to public employment. Abood is
not, as the majority at one point describes it, "something of an anomaly," allowing uncommon interference with
individuals' expressive activities. Ante, at 2627. Rather, the lines it draws and the balance it strikes reflect the way
courts generally evaluate claims that a condition of public employment violates the First Amendment. Our decisions
have long afforded government entities broad latitude to manage their workforces, even when that affects speech they
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could not regulate in other contexts. Abood is of a piece with all those decisions: While protecting an employee's most
significant expression, that decision also enables the government to advance its interests in operating effectively — by
bargaining, if it so chooses, with a single employee representative and preventing free riding on that union's efforts.
For that reason, one aspect of today's opinion is cause for satisfaction, though hardly applause. As this case came to
us, the principal question it presented was whether to overrule Abood: The petitioners devoted the lion's share of their
briefing and argument to urging us to overturn that nearly 40-year-old precedent (and the respondents and amici
countered in the same vein). Today's majority cannot resist taking potshots at Abood, see ante, at 2632-2634, but it
ignores the petitioners' invitation to depart from principles of stare decisis. And the essential work in the majority's
opinion comes from its extended (though mistaken) distinction of Abood, see ante, at 2633-2638, not from its
gratuitous dicta critiquing Abood's foundations. That is to the good — or at least better than it might be. The Abood rule
is deeply entrenched, and is the foundation for not tens or hundreds, but thousands of contracts between unions and
governments across the Nation. Our precedent about precedent, fairly understood and applied, makes it impossible for
this Court to reverse that decision.
I
I begin where this case should also end — with this Court's decision in Abood. There, some public school teachers in
Detroit challenged a clause in their collective bargaining agreement compelling non-union members to pay the union a
service charge equivalent to regular dues. The Court upheld the requirement so long as the union was using the
money for "collective bargaining, contract administration, and grievance adjustment," rather than for political or
ideological activities. 431 U.S., at 225-226, 97 S.Ct. 1782. In so doing, the Court acknowledged that such a fair-share
2646 provision "has an impact upon [public employees'] *2646 First Amendment interests"; employees, after all, might object
to policies adopted or "activities undertaken by the union in its role as exclusive representative." Id., at 222, 97 S.Ct.
1782. Still, the Court thought, the government's own interests "constitutionally justified" the interference. Ibid. Detroit
had decided, the Court explained, that bargaining with a single employee representative would promote "labor
stability" and peaceful labor relations — by ensuring, for example, that different groups of employees did not present
"conflicting demands." Id., at 221, 229, 97 S.Ct. 1782. And because such an exclusive bargaining agent has a legal
duty to represent all employees, rather than just its own members, a compulsory surcharge fairly distributes "the cost
of [bargaining] among those who benefit" and "counteracts the incentive that employees might otherwise have to
become `free riders.'" Id., at 222, 97 S.Ct. 1782.
This case thus raises a straightforward question: Does Abood apply equally to Illinois's care providers as to Detroit's
teachers? No one thinks that the fair-share provisions in the two cases differ in any relevant respect. Nor do the
petitioners allege that the SEIU is crossing the line Abood drew by using their payments for political or ideological
activities. The only point in dispute is whether it matters that the personal assistants here are employees not only of
the State but also of the disabled persons for whom they care. Just as the Court of Appeals held, that fact should
make no difference to the analysis. See 656 F.3d 692, 698 (C.A.7 2011).
To see how easily Abood resolves this case, consider how Illinois structured the petitioners' employment, and also why
it did so. The petitioners work in Illinois's Medicaid-funded Rehabilitation Program, which provides in-home services to
persons with disabilities who otherwise would face institutionalization. Under the program, each disabled person (the
State calls them "customers") receives care from a personal assistant; the total workforce exceeds 20,000. The State
could have asserted comprehensive control over all the caregivers' activities. But because of the personalized nature
of the services provided, Illinois instead chose (as other States have as well) to share authority with the customers
themselves. The result is that each caregiver has joint employers — the State and the customer — with each
controlling significant aspects of the assistant's work.[1]
For its part, Illinois sets all the workforce-wide terms of employment. Most notably, the State determines and pays the
employees' wages and benefits, including health insurance (while also withholding taxes). See 89 Ill. Admin. Code §§
686.10(h)(10), 686.40(a)-(b) (2007); App. 44-46. By regulation, Illinois establishes the job's basic qualifications: for
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example, the assistant must provide references or recommendations and have adequate experience and training for
the services given. See §§ 686.10(c), (f). So too, the State describes the services any personal assistant may provide,
and prescribes the terms of standard employment contracts entered into between personal assistants and customers.
See §§ 686.10(h), 686.20.
2647 *2647 Illinois as well structures the individual relationship between the customer and his assistant (in ways the majority
barely acknowledges). Along with both the customer and his physician, a state-employed counselor develops a service
plan laying out the assistant's specific job responsibilities, hours, and working conditions. See §§ 684.10, 684.50. That
counselor also assists the customer in conducting a state-mandated annual performance review, based on stateestablished criteria, and mediates any resulting disagreements. See § 686.30.
Within the structure designed by the State, the customer of course has crucial responsibilities. He exercises day-today supervisory control over the personal assistant. See § 676.30(b). And he gets both to hire a particular caregiver
(from among the pool of applicants Illinois has deemed qualified) and to impose any needed discipline, up to and
including discharge. See ibid.; § 677.40(d). But even as to those matters, the State plays a role. Before a customer
may hire an assistant, the counselor must sign off on the employee's ability to follow the customer's directions and
communicate with him. See §§ 686.10(d)-(e) (requiring that the employee demonstrate these capabilities "to the
satisfaction of the counselor). And although only a customer can actually fire an assistant, the State can effectively do
so by refusing to pay one who fails to "meet [state] standards." § 677.40(d). The majority reads that language
narrowly, see ante, at 2624, n. 1, 22, but the State does not: It has made clear not just in its litigation papers, but also
in its collective bargaining agreements and customer guidance that it will withhold payment from an assistant (or
altogether disqualify her from the program) based on credible allegations of customer abuse, neglect, or financial
exploitation. See App. 55; Brief for Respondent Quinn 3, 50; Ill. Dept. of Human Servs., Customer Guidance for
Managing Providers 8, online at http://www.dhs.state.il.us/OneNetLibrary/27897/documents/Brochures/4365.pdf (as
visited June 27, 2014, and available in Clerk of Court's case file).[2]
Given that set of arrangements, Abood should control. Although a customer can manage his own relationship with a
caregiver, Illinois has sole authority over every workforce-wide term and condition of the assistants' employment — in
other words, the issues most likely to be the subject of collective bargaining. In particular, if an assistant wants an
increase in pay, she must ask the State, not the individual customer. So too if she wants better benefits. (Although the
majority notes that caregivers do not receive statutory retirement and health insurance benefits, see ante, at 26342635, that is irrelevant: Collective bargaining between the State and SEIU has focused on benefits from the beginning,
and has produced state-funded health insurance for personal assistants.) And because it is Illinois that would sit down
at a bargaining table to address those subjects — the ones that matter most to employees and so most affect
workforce stability — the State's stake in a fair-share provision is the same as in Abood. Here too, the State has an
interest in promoting effective operations by negotiating with an equitably and adequately funded exclusive bargaining
agent over terms and conditions of employment. That Illinois has delegated to program customers various
2648 individualized employment issues makes *2648 no difference to those state interests. If anything, as the State has
contended, the dispersion of employees across numerous workplaces and the absence of day-to-day state supervision
provides an additional reason for Illinois to want to "address concerns common to all personal assistants" by
negotiating with a single representative: Only in that way, the State explains, can the employees effectively convey
their concerns about employment under the Rehabilitation Program. App. to Pet. for Cert. 46a (Exec. Order No.
2003-8).
Indeed, the history of that program forcefully demonstrates Illinois's interest in bargaining with an adequately funded
exclusive bargaining agent — that is, the interest Abood recognized and protected. Workforce shortages and high
turnover have long plagued in-home care programs, principally because of low wages and benefits. That labor
instability lessens the quality of care, which in turn, forces disabled persons into institutions and (massively) increases
costs to the State. See Brief for Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute as Amicus Curiae 16-26; Brief for State of
California et al. as Amici Curiae 4-5. The individual customers are powerless to address those systemic issues; rather,
the State — because of its control over workforce-wide terms of employment — is the single employer that can do so.
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And here Illinois determined (as have nine other States, see Brief for Respondent SEIU 51, n. 14) that negotiations
with an exclusive representative offered the best chance to set the Rehabilitation Program on firmer footing. Because
of that bargaining, as the majority acknowledges, home-care assistants have nearly doubled their wages in less than
10 years, obtained state-funded health insurance, and benefited from better training and workplace safety measures.
See ante, at 2640-2641; Brief for Respondent Quinn 7; App. 44-48. The State, in return, has obtained guarantees
against strikes or other work stoppages, see id., at 55 — and most important, believes it has gotten a more stable
workforce providing higher quality care, thereby avoiding the costs associated with institutionalization. Illinois's
experience thus might serve as a veritable poster child for Abood — not, as the majority would have it, some strange
extension of that decision.
It is not altogether easy to understand why the majority thinks what it thinks: Today's opinion takes the tack of throwing
everything against the wall in the hope that something might stick. A vain hope, as it turns out. Even once
disentangled, the various strands of the majority's reasoning do not distinguish this case from Abood.
Parts of the majority's analysis appear to rest on the simple presence of another employer, possessing significant
responsibilities, in addition to the State. See ante, at 2633-2634, 2636. But this Court's cases provide no warrant for
holding that joint public employees are not real ones. To the contrary, the Court has made clear that the government's
wide latitude to manage its workforce extends to such employees, even as against their First Amendment claims. The
government's prerogative as employer, we recently explained, turns not on the "formal status" of an employee, but on
the nature of the public "interests at stake"; we therefore rejected the view that "the Government's broad authority in
managing its affairs should apply with diminished force" to contract employees whose "direct employment relationship"
is with another party. NASA v. Nelson, 562 U.S. ___, ___, 131 S.Ct. 746, 758-759, 178 L.Ed.2d 667 (2011). And
indeed, we reached the same result (in language that might have been written for this case) when such employees "d
2649 [id] not work at the government's workplace[,] *2649 d[id] not interact daily with government officers and employees,"
and were not subject to the government's "day-to-day control" over "the details of how work is done." Board of
Comm'rs, Wabaunsee Cty. v. Umbehr, 518 U.S. 668, 676-677, 116 S.Ct. 2342, 135 L.Ed.2d 843 (1996).[3] Here, as I
have explained, Illinois's interests as an employer and program administrator are substantial, see supra, at 2646-2648;
and accordingly, the State's sharing of employment responsibilities with another party should not matter.[4]
Next, the majority emphasizes that the Illinois Legislature deemed personal assistants "public employees" solely "for
the purposes of coverage under the Illinois Public Labor Relations Act" and not for other purposes, like granting
statutory benefits and incurring vicarious liability in tort. Ill. Comp. Stat., ch. 20, § 2405/3(f) (West 2012); see ante, at
2626, 2634-2635; but cf. Martin v. Illinois, 2005 WL 2267733, *5-*8 (Ill. Workers' Compensation Comm'n, July 26,
2005) (treating caregivers as public employees for purposes of workers' compensation).[5] But once again, it is hard to
see why that fact is relevant. The majority must agree (this Court has made the point often enough) that "state law
labels," adopted for a whole host of reasons, do not determine whether the State is acting as an employer for purposes
of the First Amendment. E.g., Umbehr, 518 U.S., at 679, 116 S.Ct. 2342. The true issue is whether Illinois has a
sufficient stake in, and control over, the petitioners' terms and conditions of employment to implicate Abood's
rationales and trigger its application. And once more, that question has a clear answer: As I have shown, Illinois
negotiates all workforce-wide terms of the caregivers' employment as part of its effort to promote labor stability and
effectively administer its Rehabilitation Program. See supra, at 2626-2627. As contrasted to that all-important fact,
whether Illinois incurs vicarious liability for caregivers' torts, see ante, at 2635, or grants them certain statutory benefits
like health insurance, see ante, at 2634-2635, is beside the point. And still more so because the State and SEIU can
2650 bargain over most such matters; for example, as I have noted, the two have *2650 reached agreement on providing
statefunded health coverage, see supra, at 2648.
Further, the majority claims, "the scope of bargaining" that the SEIU may conduct for caregivers is "circumscribed"
because the customer has authority over individualized employment matters like hiring and firing. Ante, at 2635-2637.
But (at the risk of sounding like a broken record) so what? Most States limit the scope of permissible bargaining in the
public sector — often ruling out of bounds similar, individualized decisions. See R. Kearney & P. Mareschal, Labor
Relations in the Public Sector 75-77 (5th ed. 2014) ("The great majority of state statutes" exclude "certain matters from
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the scope of negotiations," including, for example, personnel decisions respecting "hiring, promotion, and dismissal");
Note, Developments in the Law — Public Employment, 97 Harv. L.Rev. 1611, 1684 (1984) (Many state statutes
"explicitly limit[] the scope of bargaining, typically by excluding decisions on personnel management"). Here, the scope
of collective bargaining — over wages and benefits, as well as basic duties and qualifications — more than suffices to
implicate the state interests justifying Abood. Those are the matters, after all, most likely to concern employees
generally and thus most likely to affect the nature and quality of the State's workforce. The idea that Abood applies
only if a union can bargain with the State over every issue comes from nowhere and relates to nothing in that decision
— and would revolutionize public labor law.
Finally, the majority places weight on an idiosyncrasy of Illinois law: that a regulation requires uniform wages for all
personal assistants. See ante, at 2636. According to the majority, that means Abood's free-rider rationale "has little
force in the situation now before us": Even absent the duty of fair representation (requiring the union to work on behalf
of all employees, members and non-members alike, see infra, at 2656-2657), the union could not bargain one
employee's wages against another's. Ante, at 2637.[6] But that idea is doubly wrong. First, the Illinois regulation applies
only to wages. It does not cover, for example, the significant health benefits that the SEIU has obtained for inhome
caregivers, or any other benefits for which it may bargain in the future. Nor does the regulation prevent preferential
participation in the grievance process, which governs all disputes between Illinois and caregivers arising from the
terms of their agreement. See n. 2, supra. And second, even if the regulation covered everything subject to collective
bargaining, the majority's reasoning is a non-sequitur. All the regulation would do then is serve as suspenders to the
duty of fair representation's belt: That Illinois has two ways to ensure that the results of collective bargaining redound
to the benefit of all employees serves to compound, rather than mitigate, the union's free-rider problem.
As far as I can tell, that covers the majority's reasons for distinguishing this case from Abood. And even when
considered in combination, as the majority does, they do not succeed. What makes matters still worse is the perverse
result of the majority's decision: It penalizes the State for giving disabled persons some control over their own care. If
Illinois had structured the program, as it could have, to centralize every aspect of the employment relationship, no
2651 question could possibly *2651 have arisen about Abood's application. Nothing should change because the State chose
to respect the dignity and independence of program beneficiaries by allowing them to select and discharge, as well as
supervise day-to-day, their own caregivers. A joint employer remains an employer, and here, as I have noted, Illinois
kept authority over all workforce-wide terms of employment — the very issues most likely to be the subject of collective
bargaining. The State thus should also retain the prerogative — as part of its effort to "ensure efficient and effective
delivery of personal care services" — to require all employees to contribute fairly to their bargaining agent. App. to Pet.
for Cert. 45a (Exec. Order No. 2003-8).
II
Perhaps recognizing the difficulty of plausibly distinguishing this case from Abood, the petitioners raised a more
fundamental question: the continued viability of Abood as to all public employees, even what the majority calls "fullfledged" ones. Ante, at 2627. That issue occupied the brunt of the briefing and argument in this Court. See, e.g., Brief
for Petitioners 16-24; Brief for Respondent SEIU 15-44; Brief for Respondent Quinn 15-29; Brief for United States as
Amicus Curiae 14-28; Tr. of Oral Arg. 5-21, 32-39, 42-47, 50-60. The majority declines the petitioners' request to
overturn precedent — and rightly so: This Court does not have anything close to the special justification necessary to
overturn Abood. Still, the majority cannot restrain itself from providing a critique of that decision, suggesting that it
might have resolved the case differently in the first instance. That dicta is off-base: Abood corresponds precisely to this
Court's overall framework for assessing public employees' First Amendment claims. To accept that framework, while
holding Abood at arms-length, is to wish for a sui generis rule, lacking in justification, applying exclusively to union
fees.
A
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This Court's view of stare decisis makes plain why the majority cannot — and did not — overturn Abood. That doctrine,
we have stated, is a "foundation stone of the rule of law." Michigan v. Bay Mills Indian Community, 572 U.S. ___, ___,
134 S.Ct. 2024, 2036, ___ L.Ed.2d ___ (2014). It "promotes the evenhanded, predictable, and consistent development
of legal principles [and] fosters reliance on judicial decisions." Payne v. Tennessee, 501 U.S. 808, 827, 111 S.Ct.
2597, 115 L.Ed.2d 720 (1991). As important, it "contributes to the actual and perceived integrity of the judicial
process," ibid., by ensuring that decisions are "founded in the law rather than in the proclivities of individuals," Vasquez
v. Hillery, 474 U.S. 254, 265, 106 S.Ct. 617, 88 L.Ed.2d 598 (1986). For all those reasons, this Court has always held
that "any departure" from precedent "demands special justification." Arizona v. Rumsey, 467 U.S. 203, 212, 104 S.Ct.
2305, 81 L.Ed.2d 164 (1984).
And Abood is not just any precedent: It is entrenched in a way not many decisions are. Over nearly four decades, we
have cited Abood favorably numerous times, and we have repeatedly affirmed and applied its core distinction between
the costs of collective bargaining (which the government can demand its employees share) and those of political
activities (which it cannot). See, e.g., Locke v. Karass, 555 U.S. 207, 213-214, 129 S.Ct. 798, 172 L.Ed.2d 552 (2009);
Lehnert v. Ferris Faculty Assn., 500 U.S. 507, 519, 111 S.Ct. 1950, 114 L.Ed.2d 572 (1991); Teachers v. Hudson, 475
U.S. 292, 301-302, 106 S.Ct. 1066, 89 L.Ed.2d 232 (1986); Ellis v. Railway Clerks, 466 U.S. 435, 455-457, 104 S.Ct.
2652 1883, 80 L.Ed.2d 428 (1984). Reviewing *2652 those decisions, this Court recently — and unanimously — called the
Abood rule "a general First Amendment principle." Locke, 555 U.S., at 213-215, 129 S.Ct. 798. And indeed, the Court
has relied on that rule in deciding cases involving compulsory fees outside the labor context — which today's majority
reaffirms as good law, see ante, at 2643-2644. See, e.g., Keller v. State Bar of Cal., 496 U.S. 1, 9-17, 110 S.Ct. 2228,
110 L.Ed.2d 1 (1990) (state bar fees); Board of Regents of Univ. of Wis. System v. Southworth, 529 U.S. 217, 230232, 120 S.Ct. 1346, 146 L.Ed.2d 193 (2000) (public university student fees); Glickman v. Wileman Brothers & Elliott,
Inc., 521 U.S. 457, 471-473, 117 S.Ct. 2130, 138 L.Ed.2d 585 (1997) (commercial advertising assessments). Not until
two years ago, in Knox v. Service Employees, 567 U.S. ___, 132 S.Ct. 2277, 183 L.Ed.2d 281 (2012), did the Court so
much as whisper (there without the benefit of briefing or argument, see id., at ___, 132 S.Ct., at 2296-2299
(SOTOMAYOR, J., concurring in judgment)) that it had any misgivings about Abood.
Perhaps still more important, Abood has created enormous reliance interests. More than 20 States have enacted
statutes authorizing fair-share provisions, and on that basis public entities of all stripes have entered into multi-year
contracts with unions containing such clauses. "Stare decisis has added force," we have held, when overturning a
precedent would require "States to reexamine [and amend] their statutes." Hilton v. South Carolina Public Railways
Comm'n, 502 U.S. 197, 202-203, 112 S.Ct. 560, 116 L.Ed.2d 560 (1991). And on top of that, "[c]onsiderations in favor
of stare decisis are at their acme in cases involving property and contract rights." Payne, 501 U.S., at 828, 111 S.Ct.
2597. Here, governments and unions across the country have entered into thousands of contracts involving millions of
employees in reliance on Abood. Reliance interests do not come any stronger.
The majority's criticisms of Abood do not remotely defeat those powerful reasons for adhering to the decision. The
special justifications needed to reverse an opinion must go beyond demonstrations (much less assertions) that it was
wrong; that is the very point of stare decisis. And the majority's critique extends no further. It is mostly just a catalog of
errors Abood supposedly committed — reproaches that could have been leveled as easily 40 years ago as today. Only
the idea that Abood did not "anticipate" or "foresee" the difficulties of distinguishing between collective bargaining and
political activities, see ante, at 2632-2633, might be thought different. But in fact, Abood predicted precisely those
issues. See 431 U.S., at 236, 97 S.Ct. 1782 ("There will, of course, be difficult problems in drawing lines between
collective-bargaining ... and ideological activities"). It simply disagreed with today's majority about whether in this
context, as in many others, lines that are less than pristine are still worth using. And in any event, the majority much
overstates the difficulties of classifying union expenditures. The Court's most recent decision on the subject
unanimously resolved the single issue that had divided lower courts. See Locke, 555 U.S., at 217-221, 129 S.Ct. 798.
So it is not surprising that the majority fails to offer any concrete examples of thorny classification problems. If the kind
of hand-wringing about blurry lines that the majority offers were enough to justify breaking with precedent, we might
have to discard whole volumes of the U.S. Reports.
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And the majority says nothing to the contrary: It does not pretend to have the requisite justifications to overrule Abood.
2653 Readers of today's decision will know that Abood does not rank on the majority's top-ten *2653 list of favorite
precedents — and that the majority could not restrain itself from saying (and saying and saying) so. Yet they will also
know that the majority could not, even after receiving full-dress briefing and argument, come up with reasons
anywhere near sufficient to reverse the decision. Much has gone wrong in today's ruling, but this has not: Save for an
unfortunate hiving off of ostensibly "partial-public" employees, ante, at 2638, Abood remains the law.
B
And even apart from stare decisis, that result is as it should be; indeed, it is the only outcome that makes sense in the
context of our caselaw. In numerous cases decided over many decades, this Court has addressed the government's
authority to adopt measures limiting expression in the capacity not of sovereign but of employer. Abood fits — fits
hand-in-glove — with all those cases, in both reasoning and result. Were that rule not in place, our law respecting
public employees' speech rights would contain a serious anomaly — a different legal standard (and not a good one)
applying exclusively to union fees.
This Court has long acknowledged that the government has wider constitutional latitude when it is acting as employer
than as sovereign. See Engquist v. Oregon Dept. of Agriculture, 553 U.S. 591, 598, 128 S.Ct. 2146, 170 L.Ed.2d 975
(2008) ("[T]here is a crucial difference, with respect to constitutional analysis, between the government exercising the
power to regulate ... and the government acting... to manage [its] internal operation" (internal quotation marks
omitted)). "Time and again our cases have recognized that the Government has a much freer hand" in dealing with its
employees than with other citizens. NASA, 562 U.S., at ___, 131 S.Ct. at 757. We have explained that "[t]he
government's interest in achieving its goals as effectively and efficiently as possible is elevated" in the public
workplace — that the government must have the ability to decide how to manage its employees in order to best
provide services to the public. Engquist, 553 U.S., at 598, 128 S.Ct. 2146. In effect, we have tried to place the
government-qua-employer in a similar (though not identical) position to the private employer, recognizing that both
face comparable challenges in maintaining a productive workforce. The result is that a public employee "must accept
certain limitations on his or her freedom." Garcetti v. Ceballos, 547 U.S. 410, 418, 126 S.Ct. 1951, 164 L.Ed.2d 689
(2006). "[A]lthough government employees do not lose their constitutional rights when they accept their positions,
those rights must be balanced against the realities of the employment context." Engquist, 553 U.S., at 600, 128 S.Ct.
2146.
Further, this Court has developed and applied those principles in numerous cases involving First Amendment claims.
"Government employers, like private employers," we have explained, "need a significant degree of control over their
employees' words" in order to "efficient[ly] provi[de] public services." Garcetti, 547 U.S., at 418, 126 S.Ct. 1951.
Accordingly, we have devised methods for distinguishing between speech restrictions reflecting the kind of concerns
private employers often hold (which are constitutional) and those exploiting the employment relationship to restrict
employees' speech as private citizens (which are not). Most notably, the Court uses a two-step test originating in
Pickering v. Board of Ed. of Township High School Dist. 205, Will Cty., 391 U.S. 563, 88 S.Ct. 1731, 20 L.Ed.2d 811
(1968). First, if the expression at issue does not relate to "a matter of public concern," the employee "has no First
2654 *2654 Amendment cause of action." Garcetti, 547 U.S., at 418, 126 S.Ct. 1951. Second, even if the speech addresses
a matter of public concern, a court is to determine whether the government "had an adequate justification" for its
action, ibid., by balancing "the interests of the [employee] as a citizen ... and the interest of the State, as an employer,
in promoting the efficiency of the public services it performs through its employees," Pickering, 391 U.S., at 568, 88
S.Ct. 1731.
Abood is of a piece with all those decisions; and indeed, its core analysis mirrors Pickering's. The Abood Court
recognized that fair-share provisions function as prerequisites to employment, assessed to cover the costs of
representing employees in collective bargaining. Private employers, Abood noted, often established such employment
conditions, to ensure adequate funding of an exclusive bargaining agent, and thus to promote labor stability. Abood
acknowledged (contrary to the majority's statement, see ante, at 2632) certain "differences in the nature of collective
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bargaining in the public and private sectors." 431 U.S., at 227, 97 S.Ct. 1782; see id., at 227-229, 97 S.Ct. 1782. But
the Court concluded that the government, acting as employer, should have the same prerogative as a private business
in deciding how best to negotiate with its employees over such matters as wages and benefits. See id., at 229, 97
S.Ct. 1782 ("[T]here can be no principled basis for" distinguishing between a public and private employer's view that a
fair-share clause will promote "labor stability"). At the same time, the Court recognized the need for some mechanism
to ensure that the government could not leverage its power as employer to impinge on speech its employees
undertook as citizens on matters of public import. See id., at 234-236, 97 S.Ct. 1782.
The Court struck the appropriate balance by drawing a line, corresponding to Pickering's, between fees for collective
bargaining and those for political activities. On the one side, Abood decided, speech within the employment
relationship about pay and working conditions pertains mostly to private concerns and implicates the government's
interests as employer; thus, the government could compel fair-share fees for collective bargaining. On the other side,
speech in political campaigns relates to matters of public concern and has no bearing on the government's interest in
structuring its workforce; thus, compelled fees for those activities are forbidden. In that way, the law surrounding fairshare provisions coheres with the law relating to public employees' speech generally. Or, said otherwise, an anomaly
in the government's regulation of its workforce would arise in Abood's absence: Public employers could then pursue all
policies, except this single one, reasonably designed to manage personnel and enhance the effectiveness of their
programs.
The majority's critique of Abood principally goes astray by deeming all this irrelevant. This Court, the majority insists,
has never "seen Abood as based on Pickering balancing." Ante, at 2641. But to rely on Abood's failure to cite
Pickering more often, as the majority does, see ante, at 2641, n. 26, is to miss the essential point. Although stemming
from different historic antecedents, the two decisions addressed variants of the same issue: the extent of the
government's power to adopt employment conditions affecting expression. And as just discussed, the two gave
strikingly parallel answers, providing a coherent framework to adjudicate the constitutionality of those regulations.
2655 To the extent the majority engages with that framework, its analysis founders at *2655 the first step, in assessing the
First Amendment value of the speech at issue here. A running motif of the majority opinion is that collective bargaining
in the public sector raises significant questions about the level of government spending. Ante, at 2632-2633 and n. 7,
2642 and nn. 28-29. By financing the SEIU's collective bargaining over wages and benefits, the majority suggests, inhome caregivers — whether they wish to or not — take one side in a debate about those issues.
But that view of the First Amendment interests at stake blinks decades' worth of this Court's precedent. Our decisions
(tracing from Pickering as well as Abood) teach that internal workplace speech about public employees' wages,
benefits, and such — that is, the prosaic stuff of collective bargaining — does not become speech of "public concern"
just because those employment terms may have broader consequence. To the contrary, we have made clear that
except in narrow circumstances we will not allow an employee to make a "federal constitutional issue" out of basic
"employment matters, including working conditions, pay, discipline, promotions, leave, vacations, and terminations."
Borough of Duryea v. Guarnieri, 564 U.S. ___, ___, 131 S.Ct. 2488, 2496, 180 L.Ed.2d 408 (2011); see Umbehr, 518
U.S., at 675, 116 S.Ct. 2342 (public employees' "speech on merely private employment matters is unprotected").
Indeed, even Abood's original detractors conceded that an employee's interest in expressing views, within the
workplace context, about "narrowly defined economic issues [like] salaries and pension benefits" is "relatively
insignificant" and "weak." 431 U.S., at 263, n. 16, 97 S.Ct. 1782 (Powell, J., concurring in judgment). (Those Justices
saved their fire for teachers' speech relating to education policy. See ibid.) And nowhere has the Court ever
suggested, as the majority does today, see ante, at 2642 and n. 28, that if a certain dollar amount is at stake (but how
much, exactly?), the constitutional treatment of an employee's expression becomes any different.
Consider an analogy, not involving union fees: Suppose an employee violates a government employer's work rules by
demanding, at various inopportune times and places, higher wages for both himself and his co-workers (which, of
course, will drive up public spending). The government employer disciplines the employee, and he brings a First
Amendment claim. Would the Court consider his speech a matter of public concern under Pickering? I cannot believe
it would, and indeed the petitioners' own counsel joins me in that view. He maintained at oral argument that such
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speech would concern merely an "internal proprietary matter," thus allowing the employer to take disciplinary action.
Tr. of Oral Arg. 6, 10. If the majority thinks otherwise, government entities across the country should prepare
themselves for unprecedented limitations on their ability to regulate their workforces. But again, I doubt they need to
worry, because this Court has never come close to holding that any matter of public employment affecting public
spending (which is to say most such matters) becomes for that reason alone an issue of public concern. (And on the
off-chance that both the petitioners and I are wrong on that score, I am doubly confident that the government would
prevail under Pickering's balancing test.)
I can see no reason to treat the expressive interests of workers objecting to payment of union fees, like the petitioners
here, as worthy of greater consideration. The subject matter of the speech is the same: wages and benefits for public
employees. Or to put the point more fully: In both cases (mine and the real one), the employer is sanctioning
2656 employees for *2656 choosing either to say or not to say something respecting their terms and conditions of
employment. Of course, in my hypothetical, the employer is stopping the employee from speaking, whereas in this or
any other case involving union fees, the employer is forcing the employee to support such expression. But I am sure
the majority would agree that that difference does not make a difference — in other words, that the "difference
between compelled speech and compelled silence" is "without constitutional significance." Riley v. National Federation
of Blind of N. C., Inc., 487 U.S. 781, 796, 108 S.Ct. 2667, 101 L.Ed.2d 669 (1988). Hence, in analyzing the kind of
expression involved in this case, Abood corresponds to Pickering (and vice versa) — with each permitting a
government to regulate such activity in aid of managing its workforce to provide public services.
Perhaps, though, the majority's skepticism about Abood comes from a different source: its failure to fully grasp the
government's interest in bargaining with an adequately funded exclusive bargaining representative. One of the
majority's criticisms of Abood, stated still more prominently in Knox, 567 U.S., at ___, 132 S.Ct., at 2289-2290, goes
something as follows. Abood (so the majority says) wrongly saw a government's interest in bargaining with an
exclusive representative as "inextricably linked" with a fair-share agreement. Ante, at 2640; see ante, at 2633-2634. A
State, the majority (a bit grudgingly) acknowledges, may well have reasons to bargain with a single agent for all
employees; and without a fair-share agreement, that union's activities will benefit employees who do not pay dues. Yet
"[s]uch free-rider arguments," the majority avers, "are generally insufficient to overcome First Amendment objections."
Ante, at 2627-2628 (quoting Knox, 567 U.S., at ___, 132 S.Ct., at 2289). In the majority's words: "A host of
organizations advocate on behalf of the interests of persons falling within an occupational group, and many of these
groups are quite successful even though they are dependent on voluntary contributions." Ante, at 2641.
But Abood and a host of our other opinions have explained and relied on an essential distinction between unions and
special-interest organizations generally. See, e.g., Abood, 431 U.S., at 221-222 and n. 15, 97 S.Ct. 1782;
Communications Workers v. Beck, 487 U.S. 735, 750, 108 S.Ct. 2641, 101 L.Ed.2d 634 (1988); Machinists v. Street,
367 U.S. 740, 762, 81 S.Ct. 1784, 6 L.Ed.2d 1141 (1961). The law compels unions to represent — and represent fairly
— every worker in a bargaining unit, regardless whether they join or contribute to the union. That creates a collective
action problem of far greater magnitude than in the typical interest group, because the union cannot give any special
advantages to its own backers. In such a circumstance, not just those who oppose but those who favor a union have
an economic incentive to withhold dues; only altruism or loyalty — as against financial self-interest — can explain their
support. Hence arises the legal rule countenancing fair-share agreements: It ensures that a union will receive
adequate funding, notwithstanding its legally imposed disability — and so that a government wishing to bargain with an
exclusive representative will have a viable counterpart.
As is often the case, Justice SCALIA put the point best:
2657
"Where the state imposes upon the union a duty to deliver services, it may permit the union to demand
reimbursement for them; or, looked at from the other end, where the state creates in the nonmembers a
legal entitlement from *2657 the union, it may compel them to pay the cost. The `compelling state
interest' that justifies this constitutional rule is not simply elimination of the inequity arising from the fact
that some union activity redounds to the benefit of `free-riding' nonmembers; private speech often
furthers the interests of nonspeakers, and that does not alone empower the state to compel the speech
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to be paid for. What is distinctive, however, about the `free riders' [in unions] ... is that... the law requires
the union to carry [them] — indeed, requires the union to go out of its way to benefit [them], even at the
expense of its other interests.... [T]he free ridership (if it were left to be that) would be not incidental but
calculated, not imposed by circumstances but mandated by government decree." Lehnert, 500 U.S., at
556, 111 S.Ct. 1950 (opinion concurring in judgment in part and dissenting in part).
And in other parts of its opinion, the majority itself mimics the point, thus recognizing the core rationale of Abood: What
justifies the agency fee, the majority notes, is "the fact that the State compels the union to promote and protect the
interests of nonmembers." Ante, at 2636; see ante, at 2638, n. 18. Exactly right; indeed, that is as clear a onesentence account of Abood's free-rider rationale as appears in this Court's decisions.
Still, the majority too quickly says, it has no worries in this case: Given that Illinois's caregivers voted to unionize, "it
may be presumed that a high percentage of [them] became union members and are willingly paying union dues." Ante,
at 2641. But in fact nothing of the sort may be so presumed, given that union supporters (no less than union
detractors) have an economic incentive to free ride. See supra, at 2656-2657. The federal workforce, on which the
majority relies, see ante, at 2640, provides a case in point. There many fewer employees pay dues than have voted for
a union to represent them.[7] And why, after all, should that endemic free-riding be surprising? Does the majority think
that public employees are immune from basic principles of economics? If not, the majority can have no basis for
thinking that absent a fair-share clause, a union can attract sufficient dues to adequately support its functions.
This case in fact offers a prime illustration of how a fair-share agreement may serve important government interests.
Recall that Illinois decided that collective bargaining with an exclusive representative of in-home caregivers would
enable it to provide improved services through its Rehabilitation Program. See supra, at 2648. The State thought such
bargaining would enable it to attract a better and more stable workforce to serve disabled patients, preventing their
institutionalization and thereby decreasing total state expenditures. The majority does not deny the State's legitimate
interest in choosing to negotiate with an exclusive bargaining agent, in service of administering an effective program.
See ante, at 2640-2641. But the majority does deny Illinois the means it reasonably deemed appropriate to effectuate
that policy — a fair-share provision ensuring that the union has the funds necessary to carry out its responsibilities
2658 *2658 on behalf of in-home caregivers. The majority does so against the weight of all precedent, and based on
"empirical assumption[s]," ante, at 2634, lacking any foundation. Abood got this matter right; the majority gets it wrong:
Illinois has a more than sufficient interest, in managing its workforce and administering the Rehabilitation Program, to
require employees to pay a fair share of a union's costs of collective bargaining.
III
For many decades, Americans have debated the pros and cons of right-to-work laws and fair-share requirements. All
across the country and continuing to the present day, citizens have engaged in passionate argument about the issue
and have made disparate policy choices. The petitioners in this case asked this Court to end that discussion for the
entire public sector, by overruling Abood and thus imposing a right-to-work regime for all government employees. The
good news out of this case is clear: The majority declined that radical request. The Court did not, as the petitioners
wanted, deprive every state and local government, in the management of their employees and programs, of the tool
that many have thought necessary and appropriate to make collective bargaining work.
The bad news is just as simple: The majority robbed Illinois of that choice in administering its in-home care program.
For some 40 years, Abood has struck a stable balance — consistent with this Court's general framework for assessing
public employees' First Amendment claims — between those employees' rights and government entities' interests in
managing their workforces. The majority today misapplies Abood, which properly should control this case. Nothing
separates, for purposes of that decision, Illinois's personal assistants from any other public employees. The balance
Abood struck thus should have defeated the petitioners' demand to invalidate Illinois's fair-share agreement. I
respectfully dissent.
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[1] Although this regulation states clearly that a customer has complete discretion with respect to hiring and firing a personal
assistant, the dissent contends that the State also has the authority to end the employment of a personal assistant whose
performance is not satisfactory. Nothing in the regulations supports this view. Under 89 Ill. Admin. Code § 677.40(d), the State may
stop paying a personal assistant if it is found that the assistant does not meet "the standards established by DHS as found at 89 Ill.
Adm.Code 686." These standards are the basic hiring requirements set out in § 686.10, see n. 2, infra. Providing adequate
performance after hiring is nowhere mentioned in § 686.10.
[2] It is true, as the dissent notes, post, at 2646, that a personal assistant must provide two written or oral references, see § 686.10
(c), but judging the adequacy of these references is the sole prerogative of the customer. See § 676.30(b). And while the regulations
say that an applicant must have either previous experience or training, see § 686.10(f), they also provide that a customer has
complete discretion to judge the adequacy of training and prior experience. See § 684.20(b) (the customer has complete discretion
with respect to hiring and training a personal assistant). See also § 686.10(b) (the customer may hire a minor — even under some
circumstances, a person as young as 14); § 686.10(f) (the customer may hire a personal assistant who was never previously
employed so long as the assistant has adequate training); § 684.20(b) (criminal record check not required).
[3] The other five petitioners are personal assistants under a similar Illinois program called the "Disabilities Program." See, infra, at
2644, and n. 30.
[4] The employees' First Amendment claim necessarily raised the question of governmental action, since the First Amendment does
not restrict private conduct, and the Hanson Court, in a brief passage, concluded that governmental action was present. This was so,
the Court reasoned, because the union-shop provision of the RLA took away a right that employees had previously enjoyed under
state law. 351 U.S., at 232-233, 76 S.Ct. 714.
[5] A related question arose in Keller v. State Bar of Cal., 496 U.S. 1, 110 S.Ct. 2228, 110 L.Ed.2d 1 (1990), which we discuss infra,
at 2643-2644.
[6] Only four Justices fully agreed with this approach, but a fifth, Justice Douglas, went along due to "the practical problem of
mustering five Justices for a judgment in this case." Id., at 778-779, 81 S.Ct. 1784 (concurring opinion).
[7] Recent experience has borne out this concern. See DiSalvo, The Trouble with Public Sector Unions, National Affairs No. 5, p. 15
(2010) ("In Illinois, for example, public-sector unions have helped create a situation in which the state's pension funds report a liability
of more than $100 billion, at least 50% of it unfunded").
[8] Under § 686.10(h)(9), a personal assistant "may apply for Workers' Compensation benefits through [the State] ... however, ... the
customer, not DHS, is the employer for these purposes."
[9] See www2.illinois.gov/cms/Employees/benefits/StateEmployee/Pages/default.
[10] What is significant is not the label that the State assigns to the personal assistants but the substance of their relationship to the
customers and the State. Our decision rests in no way on state-law labels. Cf. post, at 2649. Indeed, it is because the First
Amendment's meaning does not turn on state-law labels that we refuse to allow the state to make a nonemployee a full-fledged
employee "[s]olely for purposes of coverage under the Illinois Public Labor Relations Act," Ill. Comp. Stat., ch. 20, § 2405/3(f),
through the use of a statutory label.
[11] See Meat Cutters v. Jewel Tea Co., 381 U.S. 676, 85 S.Ct. 1596, 14 L.Ed.2d 640 (1965).
[12] See In re National Grinding Wheel Co., 75 N.L.R.B. 905 (1948).
[13] See In re Singer Manufacturing Co., 24 N.L.R.B. 444 (1940).
[14] See Great Southern Trucking Co. v. NLRB, 127 F.2d 180 (C.A.4 1942).
[15] See N.K. Parker Transport, Inc., 332 N.L.R.B. 547, 551 (2000).
[16] See St. John's Hospital, 281 N.L.R.B. 1163, 1168 (1986).
[17] Under the current collective-bargaining agreement, a "grievance" is "a dispute regarding the meaning or implementation of a
specific provision brought by the Union or a Personal Assistant." App. 51; see also id., at 51-54. "Neither the Union nor the Personal
Assistant can grieve the hiring or termination of the Personal Assistant, reduction in the number of hours worked by the Personal
Assistant or assigned to the Customer, and/or any action taken by the Customer." Id., at 51. That apparently limits the union's role in
grievance adjustments to the State's failure to perform its duties under the collective-bargaining agreement, e.g., if the State were to
issue an incorrect paycheck, the union could bring a grievance. See id., at 48
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[18] Contrary to the dissent's argument, post, at 2649-2650, the scope of the union's bargaining authority has an important bearing on
the question whether Abood should be extended to the situation now before us. As we have explained, the best argument that can be
mounted in support of Abood is based on the fact that a union, in serving as the exclusive representative of all the employees in a
bargaining unit, is required by law to engage in certain activities that benefit nonmembers and that the union would not undertake if it
did not have a legal obligation to do so. But where the law withholds from the union the authority to engage in most of those activities,
the argument for Abood is weakened. Here, the dissent does not claim that the union's approach to negotiations on wages or benefits
would be any different if it were not required to negotiate on behalf of the nonmembers as well as members. And there is no dispute
that the law does not require the union to undertake the burden of representing personal assistants with respect to their grievances
with customers; on the contrary, the law entirely excludes the union from that process. The most that the dissent can identify is the
union's obligation to represent nonmembers regarding grievances with the State, but since most aspects of the personal assistants'
work is controlled entirely by the customers, this obligation is relatively slight. It bears little resemblance to the obligation imposed on
the union in Abood.
[19] It is therefore unnecessary for us to reach petitioners' argument that Abood should be overruled, and the dissent's extended
discussion of stare decisis is beside the point. Cf. Stoneridge Investment Partners, LLC v. Scientific-Atlanta, Inc., 552 U.S. 148, 164166, 128 S.Ct. 761, 169 L.Ed.2d 627 (2008) (declining to extend the "implied" right of action under § 10(b) of the Securities Exchange
Act "beyond its present boundaries").
[20] The dissent suggests that the concept of joint employment already supplies a clear line of demarcation, see post, at 2648-2649,
but absent a clear statutory definition, employer status is generally determined based on a variety of factors that often do not provide
a clear answer. See generally 22 Illinois Jurisprudence: Labor and Employment § 1:02 (2012); American Federation of State, County
and Municipal Employees, Council 31 v. State Labor Relations Bd., 216 Ill.2d 569, 578-582, 298 Ill.Dec. 156, 839 N.E.2d 479, 486487 (2005); Manahan v. Daily News-Tribune, 50 Ill.App.3d 9, 12-16, 8 Ill.Dec. 659, 365 N.E.2d 1045, 1048-1050 (1977). More
important, the joint-employer standard was developed for use in other contexts. What matters here is whether the relationship
between the State and the personal assistants is sufficient to bring this case within Abood's reach.
[21] The dissent claims that our refusal to extend Abood to the Rehabilitation Program personal assistants produces a "perverse
result" by penalizing the State for giving customers extensive control over the care they receive. Post, at 2650. But it is not at all
perverse to recognize that a State may exercise more control over its full-fledged employees than it may over those who are not fullfledged state employees or are privately employed.
[22] A similar statute adopts the same rule specifically as to the U.S. Postal Service. See 39 U.S.C. § 1209(c).
[23] Wages rose from $7 per hour in 2003 to $13 per hour in 2014. Brief for Respondent Quinn 7. Current wages, according to
respondents, are $11.65 per hour. Brief for Respondent SEIU-HII 6.
[24] See generally Brief for Respondent Quinn 6-8; Brief for Respondent SEIU-HII 6.
[25] See Brief for Respondent Quinn 7.
[26] The Abood majority cited Pickering once, in a footnote, for the proposition that "there may be limits on the extent to which an
employee in a sensitive or policymaking position may freely criticize his superiors and the policies they espouse." 431 U.S., at 230, n.
27, 97 S.Ct. 1782. And it was cited once in Justice Powell's concurrence, for the uncontroversial proposition that "`the State has
interests as an employer in regulating the speech of its employees that differ significantly from those it possesses in connection with
regulation of the speech of the citizenry in general.'" Id., at 259, 97 S.Ct. 1782 (opinion concurring in judgment) (quoting Pickering,
391 U.S., at 568, 88 S.Ct. 1731). United States v. United Foods, Inc., 533 U.S. 405, 121 S.Ct. 2334, 150 L.Ed.2d 438 (2001), cited
Pickering only once — in dissent. 533 U.S., at 425, 121 S.Ct. 2334 (opinion of BREYER, J.). Neither Roberts v. United States
Jaycees, 468 U.S. 609, 104 S.Ct. 3244, 82 L.Ed.2d 462 (1984), nor Knox cited Pickering a single time.
[27] Nor is the State acting as a "proprietor in managing its internal operations" with respect to personal assistants. See NASA v.
Nelson, 562 U.S. ___, 131 S.Ct. 746, 751, 758-759, 178 L.Ed.2d 667 (2011).
[28] The dissent misunderstands or mischaracterizes our cases in this line. We have never held that the wages paid to a public-sector
bargaining unit are not a matter of public concern. The $338 payment at issue in Guarnieri had a negligible impact on public coffers,
but payments made to public-sector bargaining units may have massive implications for government spending. See supra, at 2632,
and n. 7. That is why the dissent's "analogy," post, at 2655-2656, is not illustrative at all. We do not doubt that a single public
employee's pay is usually not a matter of public concern. But when the issue is pay for an entire collective-bargaining unit involving
millions of dollars, that matter affects statewide budgeting decisions.
[29] See Cooper, Bigger Share of State Cash for Medicaid, N.Y. Times, Dec. 14, 2011.
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[30] The Court of Appeals held — and we agree — that the First Amendment claims of the petitioners who work, not in the
Rehabilitation Program, but in a different but related program, the "Disabilities Program," are not ripe. This latter program is similar in
its basic structure to the Rehabilitation Program, see App. to Pet. for Cert. 14a, but the Disabilities Program personal assistants have
not yet unionized. The Disabilities Program petitioners claim that under Illinois Executive Order No. 2009-15, they face imminent
unionization and, along with it, compulsory dues payments. Executive Order No. 2009-15, they note, is "almost identical to EO 200308, except that it targets providers in the Disabilities Program." Brief for Petitioners 10.
In a 2009 mail-ballot election, the Disabilities Program personal assistants voted down efforts by SEIU Local 73 and American
Federation State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31 to become their representatives. See App. 27. The record before us
does not suggest that there are any further elections currently scheduled. Nor does the record show that any union is currently trying
to obtain certification through a card check program. Under these circumstances, we agree with the holding of the Court of Appeals.
[1] The majority describes the petitioners as "partial" or "quasi" public employees, a label of its own devising. Ante, at 2638. But
employment law has a real name — joint employees — for workers subject at once to the authority of two or more employers (a not
uncommon phenomenon). See, e.g., 29 CFR § 791.2 (2013); Boire v. Greyhound Corp., 376 U.S. 473, 475, 84 S.Ct. 894, 11 L.Ed.2d
849 (1964). And the Department of Labor recently explained that in-home care programs, if structured like Illinois's, establish joint
employment relationships. See 78 Fed. Reg. 60483-60484 (2013).
[2] Indeed, pursuant to the grievance procedure in the present collective bargaining agreement, the SEIU obtained an arbitration
award reversing the State's decision to disqualify an assistant from the program for such reasons. See Brief for Respondent SEIU 7
(citing Doc. No. 32-5 in Case No. 10-cv-02477 (ND Ill.)).
[3] The majority claims that the Court developed this law "for use in other contexts," ante, at 2638-2639, n. 20, but that is true only in
the narrowest sense. The decisions I cite dealt with First Amendment claims that joint or contract employees made against the
government. The only difference is that those suits challenged different restrictions on the employees' expressive activities.
[4] In a related argument, the majority frets that if Abood extends to the joint employees here, a "host of workers who receive
payments from a governmental entity for some sort of service would be candidates for inclusion within Abood's reach." Ante, at 2638.
But as I have just shown, this Court has not allowed such worries about line-drawing to limit the government's authority over joint and
contract employees in the past. And rightly so, because whatever close cases may arise at the margin (there always are some), the
essential distinction between such employees and mere recipients of government funding is not hard to maintain. Consider again the
combination of things Illinois does here: set wages, provide benefits, administer payroll, withhold taxes, set minimum qualifications,
specify terms of standard contracts, develop individualized service plans, fund orientation and training, facilitate annual reviews, and
resolve certain grievances. That combination of functions places the petitioners so securely on one side of the boundary between
public employees and mere recipients of public funding as to justify deferral of line-drawing angst to another case.
[5] As the opinion's quadruple repetition of the words "appear" and "apparently" suggests, ante, at 2634-2635, the majority is mostly
guessing as to in-home caregivers' eligibility for various state programs.
[6] The majority also suggests in this part of its opinion that even if the union had latitude to demand higher wages only for its own
supporters, it would not do so. See ante, at 2637, n. 18. But why not? A rational union, in the absence of any legal obligation to the
contrary, would almost surely take that approach to bargaining.
[7] See, e.g., R. Kearney & P. Mareschal, Labor Relations in the Public Sector 26 (5th ed. 2014) ("[T]he largest federal union, the
American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), represented approximately 650,000 bargaining unit members in 2012, but
less than half of them were dues-paying members. All told, out of the approximately 1.9 million full-time federal wage system (bluecollar) and General Schedule (white-collar) employees who are represented by a collective bargaining contract, only one-third
actually belong to the union and pay dues").
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